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The  Child  in  the 
Midst 


A   Comparative  Study  of  Child  Welfare  in 
Christian  and  N on- Christian  Lands. 


BY 

MARY  SCHAUFFLER  LABAREE 

(MRS.  BENJAMIN  W.  LABAREE) 


"And  He  took  a  little  child  and  set  him  in  the  midst  of  them," 


PUBLISHED   BY 

%\)t  Central  Committee  on  tfje  ©niteb  &tubp  of  jforeign  ittistfiong 
VHetft  illebforb,  4tta&tfacf)U*ett* 


Copyright,  January,  1914 


CENTRAL  COMMITTEE   ON  THE   UNITED 
STUDY   OF  FOREIGN   MISSIONS 


Frank  Wood,  Printer 
Boston,  Mass. 


FOREWORD 

The  Central  Committee  on  the  United  Study  of 
Foreign  Missions  sends  out  the  fourteenth  text-book 
with  hearty  appreciation  of  the  favor  with  which  the 
thirteen  already  issued  have  been  received.  The  phases 
of  work  which  have  been  treated  and  the  manner  of 
their  treatment  have  appealed  to  a  large  constituency 
of  various  names,  resulting  in  an  increase  of  know- 
ledge and  an  impulse  to  pray  and  work  and  give. 

This  is  not  a  book  for  children,  but  a  book  about 
children  the  world  over,  and  with  its  accurate  state- 
ment of  facts  solicits  attention  to  the  great  need  of 
new  effort  in  behalf  of  children  in  non-Christian  lands. 
The  author,  Mary  Schauffler  Labaree  (Mrs.  Benjamin 
W. ),  a  missionary  daughter,  granddaughter,  wife,  and 
mother,  was  born  into  an  environment  of  missionary 
intelligence  and  activity  in  which  her  girlhood  was 
trained.  Later  years  of  experience  in  Persia,  and  sub- 
sequent association  with  many  nationalities  in  our 
own  land,  have  given  her  large  opportunity  to  know 
whereof  she  writes  with  tender,  sympathetic  touch. 
If  the  book  may  lead  others  to  know  and  do,  its  pur- 
pose will  be  fulfilled. 

Central  Committee  on  the  United  Study 
of  Foreign  Missions. 

Mrs.  Henry  W.  Peabody. 
Miss  E.  Harriet  Stanwood. 
Mrs.  Decatur  M.  Sawyer. 
Mrs.  Frank  Mason  North. 
Mrs.  James  A.  Webb,  Jr. 
Mrs.  A.  V.  Pshlman. 
Miss  Olivia  H.  Lawrence. 
Miss  Grace  T.  Cojlburn. 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 

Page 

FOREWORD    .  v 

CHAPTER  I. 

The  Child  in  its  Helplessness.     "  The  place  where  the 

young  Child  lay  "......  1 

CHAPTER  II. 

The  Child  at  Home.     "  Train  up  a  child  in  the  way  he 

should  go" 45 

CHAPTER  III. 

The  Child  at  Play  and  at  Work.    "  Boys  and  girls  play- 
ing in  the  streets  thereof ".....         87 

CHAPTER  IV. 

The  Child  at  School.    "  Come,  ye  children — I  will  teach 

you  the  fear  of  the  Lord  " 131 

CHAPTER  V. 

The  Child  at  Worship.     "Suffer  the  little  children  to 

come  unto  Me "  ......       177 

CHAPTER  VI. 

The  Child  at  Work  for  Christ.     "  I  must  be  about  my 

Father's  business " 221 

CHAPTER  VII.    Appendix 

The  Mother  and  the  Christ-Child.     "  Behold  the  hand- 
maid of  the  Lord  " 259 


CHAPTER  I. 

THE  CHILD  IN  ITS  HELPLESSNESS 
"The  place  where  the  young  Child  lay." 


What  do  the  children  need? — "The  Age  of  the 
Child" — All  children  to  be  included — Rights  of 
every  child  and  every  mother — Conservation  of 
human  resources — Eugenics  and  heredity — Pro- 
tection of  motherhood — Suffering  mothers — Su- 
perstitions regarding  new-born  infants — Twins — 
Infanticide — Bathing  and  clothing  children — 
Feeding  • —  Hygiene  —  Starving  children  —  In- 
fant mortality — Health — Diseases  and  their  treat- 
ment— What  missions  are  doing  for  the  helpless 
children. 


•         CHAPTER  I.      P-    y  I*- 

THE  CHILD  IN  ITS  HELPLESSNESS 
"The  place  where  the  young  Child  lay." 


"What  do  the  children  of  India  most  need?"       JBSafwSi 
The  question  was  asked  of  an  earnest  young 
teacher,  at  home  on  her  first  furlough.     It  was 
easy  to  see  how  quickly  her  thoughts  flew  back 
to  that  school  for  little  low-caste  children  which 
had  so  recently  been  started,   and  with  a  far- 
away look  in  her  eyes  she  answered; — ■ 
f"W^hat  the  children  of  India  need  is  childhood 
itself)    They   are    little    old    men    and   women, 
and  they  need  to  learn  what  it  means  to  be 
happy,  care-free  children,  to  play,  and  to  have 
good  times." 
"What  do  the  children  of  Syria  most  need?" 
This  time  it  was  a  beautiful,  young  missionary 
mother  who  answered  quickly; — 
O"^  greatest  need  of  the  children  in  Syria  is 
educated    motherhood.)  They    are    born,    carried 
around,  and  then  turned  loose  to  do  as  they 
please  as  soon  as  they  are  able  to  toddle.     It  would 
mean  that  they  would  be  kept  clean  physically, 
would  be  properly  fed,  taught,  and  trained." 


4  The  Child  in  the  Midst 

"What  is  the  greatest  need  of  the  children  in 
Persia?" 

The  answer  came  from  a  father  of  little  chil- 
dren who  had  himself  been  a  missionary's  child 
in  Persia  and  knew  well  the  country  and  its 
needs. 

"\yhfl.t  Persian  ohildren  need  is  TTOy^  hnmP. 
environment."  A  splendid  Christian  teacher  was 
talking  with  one  of  the  boys  of  our  Moslem 
school  about  personal  purity.  "That  is  all  very 
well,"  responded  the  boy,  "but  what  do  you 
really  expect  of  me  with  my  training  and  home 
life  when  my  father  has  had  one  hundred  and 
five  wives?" 
"What  do  the  children  of  America  nge.d?" 
We  turn  and  ask  ourselves  and  one  another 
this  question.  And  lo! — we  find  that  the  needa. 
of_childhr>r>fl  are  very  much  the  same  the  world 
arojind.  \^ai^  is  being  dqnft  to_  rngglthosje 
needs?  Ah!  that  is  a  very  different  question, 
and  startling,  yes,  more  than  startling,  are  the 
contrasts  discovered  as  the  thoughtful  woman 
studies  the  subject  of  child  life. 
*^he  Ageof  The  "unity  of  childhood"  throughout  the 
world  makes  this  a  vital  question  to  all  fathers 
and  mothers,  to  educators,  religious  and  social 
workers,  to  every  thinking  man  and  woman. 
So  urgent  a  question  has  it  become  in  many 
Christian  lands  that  this  has  been  aptly  called 
"the  age  of  the  child."  In  our  own  land  the 
needs  and  rights  of  the  child  are  being  discussed 


The  Child  in  its  Helplessness  5 

on  every  hand,  and  through  the  Public  Schools, 
Juvenile  Courts,  Juvenile  Commissions,  Federal 
Children's  Bureau,  Playground  Movement,  Child 
Welfare  Exhibits,  Child  Labor  laws,  and  numer- 
ous other  agencies  we  are  striving  to  deal  with 
the  problem  that  involves  the  whole  future  of 
our  land  for  weal  or  woe. 

C*But  just  as  I  cannot  care  for  the  interests  of  ^fjf6" 
my  child  alone,  but  must  recognize  that  his  life  included- 
will  be  vitally  influenced  by  whatever  concerns 
his  playmates  and  schoolmates,  so  I  must  inev- 
itably be  drawn  into  consideration  of  what  is 
due  to  the  children  of  the  community,  the  state, 
the  country,  the  world.)  What  right  have  I  to 
demand  that  my  baby  be  well  fed,  my  child  be 
protected  by  laws  that  ensure  his  safety,  that 
proper  schools  be  provided  for  his  aducation, 
that  my  daughter's  purity  and  girlhood  be 
respected,  unless  I  concede  that  right  to  ejieiy 
mother  i"  thft  ,w™,M  and  fffrg  whether  she  has 
that  right  or  not? 

One  earnest  mother  heart  poured  itself  out  in 
these  words  when  it  was  planned  that  the  women's 
missionary  societies  should  take  up  the  study  of 
the  children  of  non-Christian  lands; — 

"Sometimes  I  almost  resent  the  absurd  ex- 
tremes of  tenderness  and  care  for  babies  here, 
when  I  think  of  the  world  of  neglected  children. 
It  seems  to  me,  our  Women's  Missionary  Socie- 
ties are  just  a  great,  beautiful,  organized  mother- 
hood for  the  world,  and  the  women  don't  half 


6  The  Child  in  the  Midst 

know  or  appreciate  this  or  they  would  be  swarm- 
ing in  by  thousands  and  giving  their  money  by 
millions." 

If  any  woman  is  tempted  to  feel  that  the 
problems  of  our  own  land  are  so  overwhelming 
and  so  imperative  as  to  demand  all  our  time  and 
strength  and  attention,  let  her  read  what  is 
said  on  this  subject  by  Edward  T.  Devine,  the 
eminent  writer  and  professor  and  social  worker, 
who  is  one  of  the  greatest  leaders  in  all  lines  of 
child  welfare  and  general  welfare  work  in  Amer- 
ica. Dr.  Devine  links  our  obligations  to  foreign 
lands  inseparably  to  our  duties  to  our  own 
country. 

Our  responsibility  to  foreign  peoples, — our  responsi- 
bility to  immigrants  who  come  to  live  in  America,  and  to 
the  negroes  whom  our  own  ancestors  brought  here  by 
force,  our  responsibility  to  all  those  who  for  any  reason 
do  not  fully  share  in  that  degree  of  prosperity  and  in  that 
type  of  civilization  which  are  our  heritage,  thus  becomes 
clear  and  is  seen  to  be  at  one  with  our  direct  personal 
responsibility  towards  those  who  for  any  reason  need  our 
sympathy,  our  fraternal  co-operation,  and  our  personal 
help.* 

LeonzTBunker.  Couple  with  the  utterances  quoted  above  such 
words  as  the  following  by  Alonzo  Bunker,  whose 
faithful  labors  among  the  Karens  of  Burma  have 
worked  wonders  in  the  transformation  of  a  race, 
and  it  seems  as  though  no  conscientious,  intelli- 
gent man  or  woman  would  need  to  go  further 
for  proof  that  the  awakening  social  conscience 

*  E.  T.  Devine,  "The  Family  and  Social  Life,"  p.  51. 


The  Child  in  its  Helplessness 


regarding  the  welfare  of  children  in  our  own 
land  must  include  in  its  study  and  its  efforts  for 
improvement  the  children  of  all  lands. 

This  unity  of  childhood  marks  the  unity  of  the  human 
race,  and  the  saying  that("human  nature  is  the  same  in 
all  the  world"  gains  new  emphasis  when  studied  from  the 
standpoint  of  the  child  .1 

.  .  .  These  characteristics  which  mark  the  unity  of 
childhood  among  all  races,  sometimes  appear  to  be  ac- 
centuated among  less  intelligent  peoples;  so  that,  before 
thef  ogs  of  sin  and  ignorance  have  blurred  the  image  of  God 
in  which  they  were  created,  they  show  a  strength  and 
brightness  more  marked  than  in  their  more  favored 
brothers  and  sisters  in  enlightened  lands.  This  fact  has 
not  received  due  attention  in  ethnological  studies.* 

Every  child  has  the  inalienable  right  to  be  well- 
I  born,  to  be  welcomed,  to  be  properly  cared  for  and 
[trained  through  the  years  of  helplessness  and  devel- 
opment,  to  follow  his  instinct  for  healthful  play,  I    ^-       fj 
o  receive  an  education  sufficient  to  make  him  al  ^*^r^' 
self-supporting,  useful  member  of  society,  to  have\( 
such  moral  and  spiritual  training  as  will  develop 
the  highest  type  of  character  of  which  he  is  capable 
Every  mother  has  the  right  to  accept  the  duties 
responsibilities,   and   sufferings   of  motherhood  o 
her  own  free  will,  to  be  surrounded  by  such  con 
ditions  as  will  help  her  to  bring  her  child  into  the 
world  with  the  greatest  possible  safety  to  her  own 
life  and  health  and  to  those  of  her  child,  and  to 
loving  care  during  her  days  of  weakness  and  recu-j 
eration. 


The  rights  of 
every  child. 


The  rights  of 
every  mother. 


*  Alonzo  Bunker,  "Sketches  from  the  Karen  Hills."     Revell. 


8 


The  Child  in  the  Midst 


Conservation 
of  human 
resources. 


Importance  of 
the  children 
of  a  nation. 


Where  the  rights  of  mothers  and  children  are 
not  thus  recognized  and  guarded,  we  have  a 
condition  that  endangers  the  welfare  of  the  race 
and  leads  to  its  deterioration.  Every  nation 
has  looked  well  to  the  ^conservation  of  some 
part  of  its  human  resources, — to  its  royal  line, 
to  its  sqloUsrs  or  sailors,  to  its  wise  men  and 
astrologers,  to  its  priests  and  religious  leaders. 

The  well-known  methods  of  ancient  Sparta, 
which  consisted  in  destroying  all  weak  children 
and  submitting  all  boys  of  seven  years  old  and 
upward  to  the  most  rigorous  training  under 
state  educators,  resulted  in  producing  a  race 
of  warriors.  Fighting  men  were  what  Sparta 
wanted,  and  fighting  men  she  produced.  The 
possible  heir  to  a  throne  in  modern  times  must 
have  no  drop  of  common  blood  in  his  veins. 
Royalty  must  therefore  mate  with  royalty  in 
order  to  conserve  the  royal  line.  And  so  we 
might  go  on  and  prove  how  one  country  after 
another  observes  the  great  law  of  conservation 
of  human  resources  along  some  favorite  line. 

But  a  nation  to  be  truly  great  and  to  be  sure 
of  future  development  and  success  must  realize 
that  its  greatest  wealth  lies  in  its  children,  its 
highest  possibilities  are  wrapped  up  in  all  its 
little  ones,  its  one  h^pe  fnr  thp  f"*"™>  i<?  in  fho. 
childhooq1  of  fchfl  Tint.inn  Many  earnest  writers 
of  to-day  are  emphasizing  in  one  way  or  another 
this  great  truth  in  relation  to  children. 

Mrs.  Frederick  Schoff  in  an  address  at  the 


The  Child  in  its  Helplessness  9 

National  Congress  on  Hygiene  and  Demography 
makes  a  most  practical  application  of  these 
principles,  showing  some  ways  in  which  the 
desired  results  may  be  attained. 

It  takes  time  to  battle  down  the  old  wall  of  belief  that 
mother  instinct  teaches  a  woman  all  she  need  know  about 
child  nurture.  .  .  .  The  great  functions  of  fatherhood 
and  motherhood  should  not  be  ignored  in  the  training 
of  children  for  .life.  They  should  be  held  up  as  the 
highest  and  most  far-reaching  functions  of  human  life.  .  .  . 

"One  generation,  one  entire  generation  of  all  the  world 
of  children  understood  as  they  should  be,  loved  as  they 
ask  to  be,  and  so  developed  as  they  might  be,  would  more 
than  begin  the  millennium,"  has  been  truly  said  by  that 
lover  of  childhood,  Frances  Hodgson  Burnett. 

Child  Welfare  is  at  the  foundation  of  world- welfare. 
Child  nurture  is  the  greatest  science  of  the  age.  To 
arouse  the  whole  world  to  a  realization  of  its  duty  to  the 
children  ...  is  the  propaganda  in  which  all  who  see 
the  infinite  possibilities  of  the  child  should  unite.* 

In  a  study  of  Childhood  such  as  this,  under-  Eugenics  and 

~,     .      .  ...  .      .  Heredity. 

taken  by  Christian  women  in  their  missionary 
societies  and  mission  study  classes,  it  is  not 
enough  to  begin  with  the  child  at  the  day  of  his 
birth,  but  we  must  consider  also  the  pre-natal 
influences,  the  history  of  his  parents,  and,  in 
fact,  all  those  deep  and  far-reaching  subjects 
which  are  engrossing  the  attention  of  students  in 
America  and  England  and  on  the  Continent  of 
Europe.  In  studying  the  subjects  of  eugenics 
and  heredity,  in  watching  the  social  investigator 

*  Child  Welfare  Magazine,  Feb.,  1913,  p.  195. 


10  The  Child  in  the  Midst 

as  he  shows  us  howffrom  one  drunken,  vagabond 
woman  in  Germany  there  were  834  known  de- 
scendants, the  great  majority  of  whom  were 
prostitutes,  tramps,  paupers,  criminals,  and 
murderers,  Met  us  remember  that  the  principles 
arrived  at  apply  with  equal  significance  to  the 
future  of  the  citizens  of  China  and  of  Turkey. 

A  missionary  mother  from  China  tells  us  that 
Chinese  mothers  make  no  preparation  for  the 
coming  of  their  babies  because  of  foolish  super- 
stitions, fearing  that,  if  they  prepare,  it  will 
bring  bad  luck  and  the  baby  will  die.  "So,"  she 
continues,  "Chinese  mothers  miss  the  delightful 
months  we  American  mothers  consider  the  best 
in  our  lives,  and  the  babies  are  deprived  of  the 
right  sort  of  pre-natal  influence." 

One  missionary  draws  our  attention  to  the 
fact  of  the  awful  fears  and  deadly  terror  that 
haunt  the  lives  of  so  many  people  in  India,  and 
asks  if  this  may  not  well  be  the  result  of  the 
fact  that  their  mothers  are  the  little,  shrinking, 
frightened  child-wives  of  India.  "The  wrongs 
of  Hindu  womanhood  in  all  past  ages,"  says 
Edward  Payson  Tenney  in  his  volume  on  "Con- 
trasts in  Social  Progress,"  have  been  avenged  by 
the  propagation  of  a  race  inferior  to  that  which 
would  have  peopled  Hindustan  to-day,  had  the 
domestic  and  social  status  of  the  mothers  of  a 
great  people  been  of  a  different  character." 

Dr.  Charles  C.  Selden,  assistant  to  Dr.  John 
G.  Kerr  in  the  Asylum  for  the  Insane  in  Canton, 


The  Child  in  its  Helplessness  11 

says  that  there  are  no  statistics  that  will  allow 
comparison  between  the  number  of  insane  in 
China  and  America.  "If  conditions  are  in  any 
particular  worse  in  China  than  in  America,  it  is 
along  the  line  of  imbecility  resulting  from  bad 
heredity.  Under  the  social  ideals  of  China  every 
man  is  anxious  to  marry,  but  no  man  is  per- 
mitted to  seek  a  wife  for  himself.  The  contract 
of  marriage  is  always  made  by  a  third  party,  and 
often  a  man  finds  himself  bound  to  an  imbecile, 
insane  or  chronically  diseased  wife  whose  father 
has  paid  the  marriage  broker  a  high  price  to  get 
her  a  husband.  There  is  surely  a  great  need  for 
the  study  and  practice  of  eugenics  in  China." 

It  is  only  within  the  last  few  decades  that  the  ^therhood^ 
protection  of  motherhood  has  been  recognized 
in  civilized  lands  as  an  economic  principle.  In 
the  protection  of  the  mother  lies  the  welfare  of  the 
nation.  But  alas!  the  light  of  this  knowledge 
has  not  yet  begun  to  penetrate  into  the  darkness 
of  heathen  and  Mohammedan  lands. 

Intelligent  Christian  women  will  find  much 
food  for  thought  and  material  for  interesting 
study  in  looking  up  the  history  of  races  now 
extinct  or  those  that/' are  dying  out.  Trace  to 
their  true  source  the  reasons  for  the  decadence 
of  a  race  and  try  to  discover  if  the  principles  of 
practical,  applied  Christianity,  used  betimes  in 
all  their  truest  and  most  enlightened  methods, 
would  tend  to  save  and  elevate  such  a  race.  In 
Robert  H.  Milligan's  recent  book,  "The  Fetish 


Tribe." 


12  The  Child  in  the  Midst 

Folk  of  West  Africa,"*  his  fourth  chapter  is  on 
"A  Dying  Tribe."  A  few  extracts  will  show 
some  of  the  reasons  for  the  adjective  "Dying." 

^A  Dying  This   amiable   and   attractive   people,   the    Mpongwe 

tribe,  is  now  but  a  dying  remnant,  hurrying  to  extinction. 
It  is  not  long  since  they  were  numbered  by  tens  of  thous- 
ands; now  there  are  probably  not  more  than  five  hundred 
pure  Mpongwe  .  .  .  The  first  exterminating  factor  was 
slavery.  .  .  The  slave  traffic  was  succeeded  by  the  rum 
traffic;  and  it  would  not  be  easy  to  say  which  of  the  two 
has  proved  the  greater  evil  for  Africa.  .  .  Except  among 
the  few  Christians,  an  abundance  of  rum  is  used  at  every 
marriage  and  every  funeral  and  both  men  and  women 
drink  to  drunkenness.  .  .  I  have  known  of  parents  get- 
ting their  own  children  to  drink  to  intoxication  for  their 
amusement.  It  is  doubtful  whether  there  is  another  tribe 
in  all  West  Africa  so  besotted  with  alcoholism  as  the 
Mpongwe.  Physicians  agree  that  it  is  one  of  the  chief 
causes  of  their  increasing  sterility. 

Another  factor  in  the  extermination  of  the  Mpongwe  is 
the  demoralization  of  domestic  life  incident  to  methods 
of  trade.  .  .  White  traders  all  along  the  coast  employ 
the  Mpongwe  as  middlemen  between  them  and  the 
interior  people,  who  possess  the  export  products.  The 
white  man  gives  the  middleman  a  certain  quantity  of 
goods  on  trust.  With  these  he  goes  to  the  interior  and 
establishes  a  small  trading-post  in  one  or  several  towns.  .  . 
He  has  a  wife  or  wives  at  Gaboon,  and  he  takes  to  himself 
a  wife  or  two  at  each  of  his  interior  trading-centres.  .  . 
This  demoralization  of  domestic  life  is  even  worse  for 
the  Mpongwe  women  than  for  their  absent  husbands. 
There  is  a  J  arge  settlement  of  white  men  in  Gaboon,  most 
of  them  government  officials.  .  .  Nearly  all  the  Mpongwe 
women  become  the  mistresses  of  these  men.  .  .  The 
marriage  tie  in  Gaboon  has  long  ceased  to  be  a  "tie.".  .  . 
*  Fleming  H.  Revell. 


The  Child  in  its  Helplessness  13 

The  Protestant  Christians  of  Gaboon  are  a  very  small 
community;  but  they  are  the  best  Christians  I  have 
known  in  Africa.  They  alone  of  the  Mpongwe  have  good- 
sized  families  of  healthy  children.  They  are  the  living 
remnant  of  a  dying  tribe. 

Two  outstanding  facts  make  the  experience  The  sufferings 

of  motherhood. 

of  motherhood  in  non-Christian  lands  a  time  of 
almost  intolerable  anguish,  both  physical  and 
mental.  The  first  of  these  facts  is  the  absence 
of  skilful,  intelligent  care  previous  to  and  during 
childbirth,  and  the  second  is  the  presence  of 
innumerable  superstitions  that  envelop  the  mother 
and  her  little  one  and  the  whole  household. 

It  is  a  most  interesting  study  to  learn  how 
customs  differ  in  various  lands  and  swing  to 
extremes,  from  Persia,  where  the  time  of  child- 
birth is  the  occasion  for  a  large  neighborhood 
gathering  of  women  and  children,  to  certain 
regions  of  China,  where  we  are  told  that  there 
is  an  absolute  interdict  on  seeing  mother  or  child 
for  forty  days  after  the  birth,  and  during  that 
time  many  and  many  a  little  one  mysteriously 
disappears,  never  to  be  heard  of  again.  In 
China  the  mother  who  loses  her  life  before  being 
able  to  give  birth  to  her  child  is  consigned  by 
popular  opinion  to  the  very  lowest  hell,  which 
is  said  to  be  reserved  for  the  worst  criminals. 
In  a  large  Buddhist  temple  on  a  hill  outside 
of  Ningpo  hangs  a  huge  bronze  bell,  over  which 
are  tied  numberless  bunches  of  hair  of  women 
who  have  died  in  childbirth.    When  the  bell  is 


14  The  Child  in  the  Midst 

rung,  the  motion  is  supposed  to  pull  the  poor 
women  out  of  the  place  of  punishment.  Among 
the  Lao  a  woman  dying  in  childbirth  is  not 
allowed  to  be  cremated,  for  her  death  is  sup- 
posed to  have  been  caused  by  evil  spirits  and  the 
victim  is  blamed  and  is  not  deemed  worthy  of 
cremation  wherein  is  merit.  These  suffering 
mothers  feel  as  if  an  angel  from  heaven  had  come 
to  their  aid,  when  the  loving  face  of  a  missionary 
physician  stoops  over  them,  and  her  skilful 
hands  minister  to  their  needs.  A  few  words  by 
Dr.  E.  M.  Stuart  of  the  Church  Missionary 
Society,  at  work  in  Ispahan,  Persia,  give  a  vivid 
picture  of  the  need  for  women  physicians  and 
nurses  to  do  this  work, — a  need  that  exists  not 
only  in  Mohammedan  harems,  but  in  the  zenanas 
of  India  and  in  the  homes  of  other  lands  where 
women  live  in  seclusion. 

In  every  Moslem  land  there  are  countless  lives  lost 
every  year  from  lack  of  skilled  assistance  when  it  is  sorely 
needed.  .  .  This  work  calls  specially  for  women-doctors 
and  nurses,  for  though  Moslem  women  will  consent  to  see 
men-doctors  for  many  of  their  ailments,  and  will  even  crowd 
out  the  men-patients  at  dispensaries  taken  by  male 
doctors,  very  few  will  allow  a  man  to  give  them  the 
assistance  they  need  in  difficult  labour;  were  even  the 
women  themselves  willing,  it  is  very  uncommon  for  the 
husbands  and  other  male  relations  to  consent  to  it.  As 
a  rule  they  would  rather  the  women  died  than  allow  a  man 
to  interfere;  the  only  comfort  they  give  them  is  the  assur- 
ance of  the  Prophet  that  women  who  die  in  childbirth 
go  straight  to  Paradise. 


The  Child  in  its  Helplessness  15 

There  is  scarcely  a  land  outside  the  pale  of  5tag°mw. 
Christian  civilization  where  the  newborn  infant  born  infants- 
is  not  surrounded  by  absurd,  painful,  or  dis- 
tressing ceremonies  because  of  superstitions  that 
may  not  be  ignored,  the  "Evil  Eye"  that  must 
be  averted,  or  ceremonies  that  are  to  be  ob- 
served because  handed  down  from  generation  to 
generation.  One  of  the  most  astonishing  and 
picturesque  of  these  observances  is  described  by 
the  Swiss  missionary,  Henri  A.  Junod,  in  his 
careful  study  of  "The  Life  of  a  South  African 
Tribe." 

The  second  act  is  the  rite  of  the  broken  pot.  .  .  This  is  a 
medical  treatment  and  a  religious  ceremony  combined. 
It  is  performed  by  the  family  doctor  on  the  threshold  of 
the  hut  in  the  following  way:  He  puts  into  this  piece  of 
broken  pottery  pieces  of  skin  of  all  the  beasts  of  the  bush: 
antelopes,  wild  cats,  elephants,  hippopotami,  rats,  civet 
cats,  hyenas,  elands,  snakes  of  dangerous  kinds;  and 
roasts  them  till  they  burn.  The  smoke  then  rises,  and 
he  exposes  the  child  to  it  for  a  long  time,  the  body,  face, 
nose,  mouth.  The  baby  begins  to  cry;  he  sneezes,  he 
coughs;  it  is  just  what  is  wanted;  then  the  doctor  takes 
what  remains  of  the  pieces  of  skin,  grinds  them,  makes 
a  powder,  mixes  it  with  tihuhlu  grease  of  the  year  before 
last,  and  consequently  hard  enough  to  make  an  ointment. 
With  this  ointment  he  rubs  the  whole  body  of  the  child, 
especially  the  joints,  which  he  extends  gently  in  order 
to  assist  the  baby's  growth. 

All  this  fumigation  and  manipulation  is  intended  to 
act  as  a  preventive.  Having  been  so  exposed  to  all  the 
external  dangers,  dangers  which  are  represented  by  the 
beasts  of  the  bush,  the  child  may  go  out  of  the  hut.  He 
is  now  able  "to  cross  the  foot-prints  of  wild  beasts" 


16  The  Child  in  the  Midst 

without  harm.  .  .  This  rite  of  the  broken  pot  is  also 
the  great  preventive  remedy  against  the  much  dreaded 
ailment  of  babies,  convulsions. 

The  Evil  Eye.        From  land  to  land  you  may  travel,  through 
•jg/  Africa,  Asia,  and  the  Islands  of  the  Pacific,  and 

^  ,  /? fl  all  the  poor  little  babies  and  their  older  brothers 
/isIA-CJHjl/  and  sisters  will  be  found  to  be  victims  of  super- 
stitions that  surround  and  hamper  and  often 
injure  their  pitiful  little  lives.  The  Evil  Eye, — 
oh!  how  it  is  feared  and  how  every  possible  and 
impossible  means  is  used  to  avert  it.  You  must 
not  think  of  openly  admiring  a  Mohammedan 
baby,  or  of  wearing  anything  black  on  your  head 
when  making  your  first  call  upon  it,  for  you 
would  certainly  cast  the  Evil  Eye  on  it.  A 
Maronite  woman  in  the  Lebanon  mountains, 
Syria,  had  lost  a  baby  three  or  four  weeks  old, — 
her  first  baby  boy.  She  told  a  missionary  that 
the  child  had  died  because  while  he  was  sick  they 
opened  an  egg,  and  found  therein  an  eye  (the 
life-germ)  and  that  was  the  Evil  Eye  which  had 
killed  the  child. 
Teething.  "Children  in  Nyago,  Africa,"  we  read  in  a 

Church  Missionary  Society  report,  "receive  the 
tribal  mark  by  being  branded  on  their  foreheads 
with  a  hot  iron.  Some  of  the  front  teeth  are 
extracted  as  soon  as  the  child  can  speak."  The 
teething  period  as  well  as  every  other  part  of  a 
child's  life  has  to  be  safe-guarded  from  malicious 
influences.  For  instance,  a  child  of  the  Thonga 
Tribe  in  South  Africa  has  a  white  bead  tied  to  a 


<N 


How  Bedouin  Mothers  Carry  Their  Babies 


The  Child  in  its  Helplessness  17 

hair  about  the  forehead  as  soon  as  it  has  cut  the 
two  Tipper  and  lower  incisors,  for,  unless  this  is 
done,  there  is  no  hope  that  the  child  will  become 
intelligent;  he  would  shiver  instead  of  smiling, 
and  the  other  teeth  would  not  come  out  nor- 
mally. 

Thank  God  that  there  are  sometimes  mission-  Evil  spirits 

driven  out    by 

aries  near  at  hand  who  have  won  the  love  and  the  missionary. 
confidence  of  the  mothers  and  who  are  allowed 
to  "drive  out  the  evil  spirits"  by  means  of  ap- 
plied Christianity,  common  sense,  and  cleverness. 
Here  is  an  example  of  all  three  means  used  for  a 
baby  on  the  borders  of  Pigmy  Land. 

One  morning  a  woman  brought  down  to  the  dispensary 
a  wee  morsel  of  three  weeks;  it  was  a  pitiful  little  object 
of  mere  skin  and  bone.  The  mother  explained  that  it 
had  been  poisoned  out  of  spite,  or  it  was  possessed  of  an 
evil  spirit.  "See,"  said  she,  "I  have  done  all  I  could  to 
let  out  the  poison  or  devil."  Looking  at  its  body  I  saw 
it  was  covered  with  a  number  of  small,  deep  cuts,  and  the 
blood  had  been  left  to  dry.  Low  moans  and  a  tired  cry 
came  from  the  poor,  little,  helpless  mite  as  the  flies  tortured 
its  mutilated  body.  After  questioning  the  mother  the 
"evil  spirit"  took  the  form  of  bananas  and  mushrooms, 
on  which  she  had  been  bringing  up  the  three  weeks'  infant! 
Feeding  bottles  were  an  unknown  luxury,  and,  as  no 
equivalent  had  been  invented,  babies  were  compelled 
to  lap  from  the  hand,  an  art  they  never  properly  learned 
and  thrived  on  very  poorly.  Some  three  dozen  india 
rubber  "comforters"  were  sent  out  to  me,  and  these  I 
managed  to  fix  on  empty  ink  bottles  or  medicine  bottles-, 
and  so  a  new  fashioned  "Allenbury  feeder"  was  introduced. 
The  demand  far  exceeded  the  supply,  so  they  could  only 
be  lent  out  by  the  month.* 

*  Ruth  B.  Fisher,  "On  the  Borders  of  Pigmy  Land."     Revell. 


18 


The  Child  in  the  Midst 


Superstitions 
regarding  twins. 


Infanticide. 


Strangely  enough  the  birth  of  twins  seems  to 
be  regarded  with  horror  or  disgust,  or  at  least 
as  a  misfortune,  in  almost  all  lands  where  Christ, 
the  Lover  of  children,  is  not  known.  In  some 
parts  of  Africa  the  little  twin  babies  are  stuffed 
into  a  pot  and  thrown  into  the  woods  to  die, 
and  their  mother  is  considered  disgraced  for  life 
or  sent  into  exile.  A  missionary  of  the  Church 
Missionary  Society  of  London  tells  us  that  in 
West  Africa  the  idea  is  that  by  the  law  of  God 
human  births  should  be  single;  therefore,  if  a 
mother  has  twins,  she  has  been  degraded  to  the 
level  of  a  beast,  the  children  are  also  beasts,  and 
their  death  is  necessary  in  order  to  preserve  the 
human  race  pure  and  to  prevent  misfortune. 
Japanese  fathers  will  not  let  a  little  child  look 
into  a  mirror  and  see  its  double,  for  fear  that 
when  grown  it  will  be  unfortunate  enough  to 
have  twins! 

As  there  is  no  phase  of  life  that  Christian 
missions  cannot  touch  and  change,  so  among 
some  of  the  African  West  Coast  tribes,  as  the 
people  have  learned  of  Christianity,  twin  murder 
has  been  abandoned  along  with  human  sacrifice, 
though  even  harder  to  eradicate. 

Were  twin  murder  alone  prevalent  among  non- 
Christian  races,  it  would  be  reason  enough  for 
earnest  effort  and  prayer  on  the  part  of  every 
Christian  mother  in  the  world  until  it  could  be 
stamped  out.  But  the  crime  of  infanticide  is 
so   frightfully  prevalent   in  China,    India,    and 


The  Child  in  its  Helplessness  19 

the  Pacific  Islands  that  it  is  a  loud  challenge  to 
ChristWi  parents  to  bring  into  darkened  hearts 
and  homes  the  knowledge  of  Him  who  considered 
it  a  capital  offense  even  to  "cause  one  of  these 
little  ones  to  stumble." 

In  very  few  cases  do  we  read  of  infanticide 
being  practiced  at  the  present  time  on  boy  babies. 
Twin  murder  as  mentioned  above,  the  killing  in 
Central  Africa  of  "monstrosities"  who  have  been 
born  with  a  tooth  cut,  or  who  cut  their  upper 
teeth  first,  and  the  putting  away  of  illegitimate 
children  among  some  Mohammedans,  seem  to  be 
almost  the  only  exceptions  to  this  rule.  The 
poor  little  girl  babies,  not  wanted,  not  welcomed, 
considered  a  disgrace  and  an  expense,  must 
again  and  again  pay  the  penalty  for  being  girls 
with  their  lives. 

"Why  should  the  girl  live?"  the  Pacific  Islander 
would  say  to  the  early  missionaries,  "  She  cannot 
poise  the  spear,  she  cannot  wield  the  club."* 
.    Rev.  E.  Storrow  has  made  a  careful  study  of  Pause?  ?j  . 

J  infanticide  11 

the  causes  of  infanticide  in  India,  and  his  con-  India- 
elusions  are  worthy  of  our  attention. 

Our  knowledge,  at  the  best  imperfect,  is  confined  to  the 
present  century,  the  period  of  British  supremacy. 
Three  causes  have  led  to  it : — 

1.  Great  moral  laxity,  combined  with  indifference  to 
infantine  life,  and  a  desire  to  conceal  wrong  doing,  which 
the  privacy  of  native  habits  renders  comparatively  easy. 

2.  Religious  fanaticism  has  led  to  the  crime  in  re- 
stricted areas.  .  . 

*  Alexander,  "The  Islands  of  the  Pacific."     Am.  Tract  Soc. 


20  The  Child  in  the  Midst 

3.  But  infanticide,  springing  out  of  disappointment 
at  the  birth  of  girls,  because  of  their  assumed  inferiority 
to  boys,  the  lowering  of  the  family  repute,  and  the  in- 
evitable expense  demanded  by  usage  on  their  marriage, 
chiefly  requires  our  attention;  because  it  grew  into  a 
system  which  was  hardly  concealed,  and  became  pre- 
valent in  Rajputana,  Gujarat,  Cutch,  and  other  great 
districts  in  Central  and  Western  India.  .  . 

The  little  ones  were  usually  destroyed  immediately 
after  birth.  .  .  The  reasons  for  such  a  usage,  widely  es- 
tablished among  such  people,  and  perpetuated  through 
many  generations,  are  worthy  of  close  attention. 

Cruelty  is  not  a  Hindu  characteristic.  .  .  But  the  people 
are  callous  and  apathetic.  They  would  not  deliberately 
inflict  suffering  and  take  pleasure  in  it,  but  they  would 
not  move  hand  or  foot  to  rescue  such  as  were  greatly 
suffering.  .  .  This  goes  far  to  explain  the  unchallenged 
prevalence  for  ages  of  such  atrocities  as  suttee  and  in- 
fanticide. .  . 

"A  mother  of  sons"  is  one  of  the  highest  compliments 
that  can  be  paid  to  a  wife;  "a  mother  of  daughters"  is 
one  of  the  most  contemptuous  and  scornful  of  all  terms  of 
reproach.  This  explains  the  gladness  with  which  the 
birth  of  sons  is  welcomed,  the  disappointment  manifest 
at  the  birth  of  daughters,  and  the  disposition  to  put 
them  away.  .  . 

But  whilst  these  were  the  causes  generally  operative, 
there  were  two  special  ones,  which  were  influential  among 
the  haughty,  high-caste  Rajputs  and  kindred  tribes — 
the  difficulty  of  procuring  suitable  husbands  for  their 
daughters,  when  the  customary  age  for  marriage  arrived; 
with  the  supposed  disgrace  of  having  unmarried  daughters, 
and  the  difficulty  of  defraying  the  heavy  expenses  which 
usage  demands.  .  . 

Happily,  the  crime  is  abating  through  the  persistent 
action  of  the  government,  and  yet  more  because  of  that 
great  wave  of  renewed  opinion  and  sentiment  passing 


The  Child  in  its  Helplessness  21 

over  the  people.    But  that  thia  crime  is  yet  frequent, 
and  the  IStw  evaded,  is  evident.* 

Was  there  a  dry  eye  in  the  auditorium  at 
Northfield  when  Mrs.  James  Cochran,  only  a 
few  weeks  before  her  death,  told  of  the  little  girl 
babies  in  China  who  are  thrown  out  to  die?  All 
could  feel  the  throbbing  love  of  her  mother  heart 
as  she  told  the  story  in  such  simple  words  to  the 
hundreds  of  young  women  gathered  before  her. 
Who  among  them  could  ever  again  be  guiltless 
if  she  did  not  do  her  share  towards  saving  the 
baby  girls  of  China?    Listen  to  her  words:** 

Confucianism  wants  no  little  girls,  for  they  are  of  no 
use.  It  is  very  nice  to  have  one  or  two,  but  in  the  part 
of  China  from  which  I  come  it  is  absolutely  a  custom,  if 
there  are  more  than  two  or  three,  to  murder  the  others 
in  some  horrible  way.  One  night  one  of  my  pupils 
came  to  my  class  very  soberly.  At  first  she  whispered 
to  the  women  about  her  and  then  they  began  to  whisper 
to  each  other.  Finally  I  inquired  the  reason.  One  of  the 
women  replied,  "She  is  feeling  badly  because  they  are 
killing  a  little  baby  down  at  her  house." 

"Killing  a  little  baby!" 

"Yes,"  the  girl  replied,  "they  have  three  little  girls  and 
another  girl  has  just  come.  I  feel  so  badly  because  she 
is  a  dear,  fat,  little  baby.  I  did  not  want  to  see  her  die, 
but  my  sister  is  determined  to  kill  her." 

"Oh,"  I  said,  "you  go  and  bring  that  baby  to  me.  I 
can  take  care  of  her." 

So  she  went,  but  before  she  arrived  the  baby  had  been 
murdered  in  a  way  too  dreadful  to  tell. 

*E.  Storrow,  "Our  Sisters  in  India."     Revell. 
**  Record  of  Christian  Work,  Sept.,  1912,   "How  Chinese  Religions 
Fail."  . 


22  The  Child  in  the  Midst 

dSidref.of  I*  is  rather  entertaining  to  pick  up,  one  after 

another,  books  and  magazine  articles  written 
for  children  about  the  children  of  missionary 
lands,  and  to  find  them  all  starting  out  with  the 
proposition,  "Children  are  very  much  the  same 
the  world  around."  How  are  we  going  to 
reconcile  this  statement  with  the  fact  that  some 
children  survive  and  even  thrive  upon  treatment 
that  would  mean  certain  death  to  others?  What 
would  happen  to  the  little  American  baby  first 
opening  his  eyes  on  the  world,  if  he  were  taken 
out  of  doors  as  the  babies  are  in  Central  Africa 
between  four  and  five  o'clock  in  the  morning, 
when  the  cold  night  winds  are  still  abroad,  and 
cold  water  were  dashed  over  him,  and  he  were 
left  naked  out  there  to  dry?  The  cold  water 
treatment  of  the  Africans  and  the  Lao  differs 
widely  from  the  baths  of  little  ones  in  Japan 
where  the  water  must  be  nearly  boiling  hot  to 
be  of  the  proper  temperature.  But  in  Persia  it 
would  be  sure  death  to  a  newborn  baby  to  be 
bathed  at  all, — he  must  be  carefully  rubbed  with 
salt  as  were  the  properly-cared-for  infants  of 
Ezekiel's  time!  (Ez.  16:4.)  Then  into  a  cradle 
he  is  not  laid,  but  strapped,  wound  round  and 
round  until  his  little  legs  and  arms  are  rigid  and 
immovable,  and  the  soft  bones  of  the  back  of  his 
head  are  flattened  as  he  lies  there  day  after  day. 
Oh,  how  we  long  to  pick  him  up  and  let  him 
change  places  occasionally  with  one  of  the  im- 
perial babies  of  Japan,  who  must  be  held  in 


The  Child  in  its  Helplessness  23 

some  one's  arms  day  and  night  from  the  time  of 
his  birth  until  he  can  walk.  But  no,  there  he 
must  lie/^nd,  in  order  that  he  may  not  take 
cold  and  fall  a  victim  to  that  dangerous  enemy, 
fresh  air,  over  the  ridgepole  of  the  cradle  are 
thrown  various  coverings,  most  of  which  hang 
to  the  floor.  A  missionary  told  me  that  once 
when  she  wanted  to  look  at  a  Syrian  baby,  she 
took  off  four  blankets  which  had  been  thrown  over 
the  whole  cradle,  and  then  removed  a  Turkish 
towel  folded  double  over  the  child's  face. 

It  is  strange  to  learn  in  how  many  lands  the  clothing  of 

*  children. 

mothers  feel  that  they  must  wrap  and  tie  and 
bind  and  swathe  their  babies  until  they  are 
deprived  of  all  power  of  motion,  and  lives  and 
health  are  sadly  endangered  by  too  much  rather 
than  too  little  clothing.  The  Chinese  mother 
dresses  her  baby  in  a  tiny  wadded  jacket,  then 
another,  then  another,  saying  perhaps,  "It  is 
five  jackets  cold  to-day."  He  is  wrapped  and 
tied  up  until  the  bundle  with  a  baby  at  the  centre 
can  be  rolled  on  the  floor  without  hurting  him, 
or  may  perchance  act  as  a  life-preserver  if  he 
falls  off  the  houseboat  into  the  canal.  It  is 
pretty  sure  to  keep  afloat  until  it  can  be  pulled 
in  with  a  boat  hook. 

Very  differently  clad  are  the  "Coral  Island 
Brownies"  or  the  babies  of  Africa,  who  are  not 
hampered  with  any  clothes  at  all,  and  as  they 
grow  older  simply  wear  a  fringe  of  grass  or  a 
strip  of  calico  about  their  waists. 


24  The  Child  in  the  Midst 

It  is  easy  to  trace  many  of  the  cases  of  terrible 
eye  disease  among  children  in  Egypt,  Syria,  and 
other  warm  countries  to  the  utter  lack  of  any 
protection  to  the  eyes  from  the  glaring  sunlight. 
Often  boat  women  are  seen  rowing  in  the  bright 
sunlight  in  China  with  babies  asleep  on  their 
backs,  and  nothing  over  the  sensitive  little  eyes 
as  their  heads  bob  up  and  down  in  time  with  the 
oars. 

It  is  often  a  great  shock  to  the  American  mis- 
sionary mother  to  see  little  heads  wrapped  and 
swathed  in  numerous  cloths  and  kerchiefs,  while 
the  little  feet  are  blue  with  cold.  But  then,  the 
shock  is  reciprocal,  and,  while  the  mother  is 
off  conducting  a  meeting,  her  nurse  is  carefully 
making  up  for  her  negligence  by  wrapping  up 
the  head  of  the  missionary  baby  until  he  is 
bathed  in  perspiration! 
infant  The  study  of  Infant  Mortality  is  now  engrossing 

the  thought  and  attention  of  many  earnest  men 
and  women.  It  is  most  difficult  to  get  vital 
statistics  from  any  non-Christian  lands  in  order 
to  give  comparative  tables.  In  comparing  the 
mortality  statistics  of  the  United  States  for  1890 
and  1909  we  find  marked  improvement  in  the 
"opportunity  for  life  and  health"  granted  to 
American  children.  If  George  B.  Mangold  is 
right  in  saying  that  "the  infant  and  child  mor- 
tality of  a  people  is  a  barometer  of  their  social 
progress,"  then  we  have  reason  to  believe  that 
our  land  is  making  real  advance  in  this  respect. 


The  Child  in  its  Helplessness  25 

In  1890  the  total  number  of  deaths  of  children' 
under  five  years  was  307,562;  in  1909  the  total 
number  6^  deaths  of  children  under  five  years 
was  196,534.  x 

From  the  first  mortality  table  of  the  principal 
cities  of  the  world  in  1912  that  has  been  made 
public  we  learn  that — 

Stockholm  has     82  deaths  per  1,000  births. 

London         "      90      "  "      " 

New  York     "     105      "  "      " 

Contrast  with  these  figures  the  following, 
based  upon  careful  study  and  research  by  high 
authorities: — ■ 

"It  is  by  no  means  improbable  that  more  than 
half  the  whole  number  of  Chinese  children  die 
before  they  are  two  years  old."  (Arthur  H. 
Smith.) 

In  Syria  the  infant  mortality  is  75%  of  the 
births. 

In  Persia  the  infant  mortality  is  85%  of  the 
births. 

At  a  meeting  of  the  National  Association  for 
the  Prevention  of  Infant  Mortality  in  Great 
Britain,  the  Right  Honorable  John  Burns, 
P.  C,  M.  P.,  speaking  on  "Infant  Life  Protection'' 
gave  many  interesting  facts  and  figures  to  show 
how  infant  mortality  is  being  decreased  in  Great 
Britain  through  scientific  and  systematic  efforts 
along  many  lines.     One  sentence  is  significant: 

"Let  me  decide  the  food,  the  home,  and  the 
condition  of  life  of  every  child  from  birth  to 


26 


The  Child  in  the  Midst 


Feeding  of 
children. 


Ignorant 
mothers. 


seven  years  of  age,  and  the  rest  of  mankind  can 
do  with  the  children  after  seven  years  of  age 
what  they  like." 

Constant  and  increasing  attention  is  being 
paid  in  these  days  to  the  proper  feeding  of  chil- 
dren, to  the  study  of  dietetics,  to  the  preparation 
of  suitable  food  for  infants,  and  to  the  proper 
intervals  for  administering  the  food.  Any  mother 
of  average  intelligence  in  our  land  may  secure 
one  of  the  carefully  prepared  books  such  as  Dr. 
Holt's  on  "The  Care  and  Feeding  of  Children," 
or  the  smaller  leaflets  such  as  "What  Children 
Should  Eat,"  and  by  making  a  study  of  them  and 
of  her  child  may  hope  to  see  that  it  is  well  and 
properly  nourished.  But  what  chance  is  there 
for  the  mother  in  Asia  or  Africa  who,  even  if 
she  cares  to  learn,  has  no  means  of  knowing  how 
to  feed  her  child  properly? 

I  was  making  a  call  of  condolence  on  a  neigh- 
bor in  Persia  who  had  just  buried  a  dearly  loved 
baby,  the  fourth  or  fifth  she  had  lost.  With 
such  a  pathetic  look  she  said,  "It  seems  as  if  we 
did  not  know  how  to  care  for  our  babies.  You 
missionaries  take  such  beautiful  care  of  yours." 
A  wonderful  opening,  by  the  way,  for  starting  a 
mothers'  meeting  at  which  we  used  to  discuss 
the  care  and  training  of  our  little  ones.  A 
mother  arrived  early  one  meeting  day  to  tell 
me,  "  I  tried  on  my  children  what  you  suggested 
last  week,  and  it  worked." 

Quite  different   was  this  set  of  mothers  who 


The  Child  in  its  Helplessness  27 

had  long  been  in  contact  with  the  missionaries, 
from  the  mother  in  a  Persian  village  who  begged 
a  missionary  to  put  a  cent  on  her  baby's  head  and 
write  a  prayer  that  it  might  not  die  as  six  others 
had  done  in  that  family.  The  missionary  replied 
with  some  severity  that  it  was  much  more  to 
the  purpose  to  have  the  mother  learn  to  take 
proper  care  of  it,  for  the  baby  was  not  yet  a 
year  old  and  she  was  feeding  it  with  meat  and 
fruit. 

In  most  if  not  all  of  the  non-Christian  lands 
whose  child  life  we  are  studying  there  seems  to 
be  the  tendency  to  two  extremes.  The  children 
are  often  nursed  by  the  mother  for  two,  three, 
five,  or  even  more  years,  and  at  the  same  time 
they  are  allowed  to  eat  anything  that  their  fancy 
dictates  or  that  they  can  get  hold  of.  Mrs.  Noyes 
of  China  says  that  if  the  mother  has  no  milk  she 
cannot  afford  to  buy  canned  milk,  and  of  course 
fresh  milk  is  entirely  out  of  her  reach.  So  she 
chews  rice  most  carefully  until  it  is  soft  and 
mushy,  then  takes  it  from  her  own  mouth  and 
puts  it,  germs  and  all,  into  the  baby's  mouth. 
This  diet  is  supplemented  with  rich  cakes  and 
the  inevitable  tea.  Another  missionary  tells  us 
that,  if  a  child  in  China  is  ill,  his  appetite  is 
tempted  by  rich,  heavy  food  or  fruit,  and  adds 
"the  mortality  of  children  is  frightful." 

Mrs.  Underwood,  an  experienced  mother  and  An  unwhoie- 
physician  who  has  lived  and  worked  many  years 
in  Korea,  says: 


28  The  Child  in  the  Midst 

Every  imaginable  practice  which  comes  under  the 
definition  of  unhygienic  or  unsanitary  is  common.  Even 
young  children  in  arms  eat  raw  and  green  cucumbers, 
unpeeled,  acrid  berries,  and  heavy,  soggy  bread.  They 
bolt  quantities  of  hot  or  cold  rice,  with  a  tough,  indi- 
gestible cabbage,  washed  in  ditch  water,  prepared  with 
turnips,  and  flavored  with  salt  and  red  pepper.  Green 
fruit  of  every  kind  is  eaten  with  perfect  recklessness  of  all 
the  laws  of  nature,  and  with  impunity.  .  . 

But  even  these,  so  to  speak,  galvanized-iron  interiors  are 
not  always  proof.  It  takes  time,  but  every  five  or  six 
years,  by  great  care  and  industry,  a  bacillus  develops 
itself  .  .  .  and  then  there  is  an  epidemic  of  cholera.* 

It  is  one  of  the  most  difficult  lessons  to  im- 
press on  those  who  have  become  Christians  that 
true  Christianity,  lived  out  to  its  logical  con- 
clusion, includes  all  that  proper  physical  care  of 
the  child  which,  with  the  right  mental  and 
spiritual  training,  shall  prepare  it  to  take  its 
place  in  the  world. 

Dr.   Exner,   recently  in  physical  educational 
work  in  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  at  Shanghai,  says: — 
Hygiene  and  "The  need  of  the  knowledge  of  hygiene  has 

the  child  prob-  ,    n     •  .        1  •  .1  1  >i  1  11 

lem.  a  very  definite  bearing  on  the  child  problem. 

Thousands  upon  thousands  of  children  are  killed 
simply  for  the  lack  of  knowledge  of  the  simplest 
elements  of  feeding  and  care.  To  illustrate: 
A  well  educated  Chinese  teacher,  graduate  of  a 
mission  school,  fed  his  five  months'  old  daughter 
a  piece  of  rich   cake.     It  developed  intestinal 

*  L.    H.    Underwood,    "Fifteen   Years  among   the   Top-Knots." 
Am.  Tract  Soc. 


The  Child  in  its  Helplessness  29 

trouble  from  which  it  died  in  spite  of  expert 
medical  cartes.  When  I  expressed  my  sympathy, 
he  said,  'Well,  it  is  the  Lord's  will.'  I  added 
to  myself,  'You  should  know  better!'  " 

How  much  easier  it  is  to  say  piously,  "It  is) 
the  Lord's  will,"  than  to  take  trouble  and  bearl 
expense  and  lay  aside  age-long  custom  and 
prejudice  in  order  that  little  ones  may  live-F 
But  we  must  not  judge  too  harshly  when  we 
remember  how  long  it  has  taken  more  enlight- 
ened lands  to  learn  the  great  value  of  the  lives 
of  the  children  and  how  to  care  for  these  lives. 
Rather  should  we  be  all  the  more  ready  to  send 
and  carry  to  them  the  light  and  knowledge  that 
have  come  to  us.  Then  there  will  be  fewer  such 
scenes  as  one  missionary  mother  witnessed  in 
Syria.  It  was  in  a  Jewish  family  where  there 
were  four  little  girls.  The  baby  was  a  mass 
of  sores  from  head  to  foot,  and  the  missionary 
physician  said  that  they  were  merely  the  result 
of  mal-nutrition.  But  the  mother  said  that  her 
husband  was  utterly  unwilling  to  buy  a  little 
milk  each  day,— "  It  is  not  worth  while,  for  she 
is  only  another  little  girl." 

It  is  a  most  legitimate  and  absolutely  essential  f0pre^^n^y 
part  of  missionary  work, — and  not  one  of  the  mothers, 
easiest  tasks,  either, — to  teach  parents  that 
"children  intelligently  fed  during  infancy,  child- 
hood, and  youth  may  hope  for  normal  health  in 
adult  life,  with  natural  physical  strength,  en- 
durance, buoyancy."    Here  is  a  special  field  of 


30  The  Child  in  the  Midst 

labor  for  missionary  mothers,  who  have  this 
advantage  over  physicians  and  teachers  that  they 
can  teach  by  object  lessons  which  always  make 
a  deeper  impression  than  exhortation  or  verbal 
instruction.  Of  course  the  missionary  mother 
often  has  the  great  handicap  of  an  adverse  cli- 
mate in  which  to  bring  up  her  child.  But  her 
intelligent  application  of  the  principles  she  should 
learn  in  order  to  fit  her  for  motherhood,  and 
her  willingness  to  teach  these  principles  to  the 
ignorant  mothers  so  interested  in  all  that  per- 
tains to  the  little  foreign  baby,  may  be  some  of 
the  greatest  factors  in  the  future  welfare,  sta- 
mina, and  development  of  great  nations  such  as 
China  and  India, 
children  starv-  Which  is  more  harmful  to  a  child,  reckless, 
indiscriminate  over-feeding  or  under-feeding  and 
starvation  diet?  In  lands  swept  periodically  by 
famine  or  flood  or  devastated  by  war  and  mas- 
sacre, there  are  thousands  of  little  children  who 
literally  starve  to  death  while  other  thousands 
continue  to  exist, — but  what  an  existence  it  is! 
How  can  it  but  have  its  evil  effect  on  the  mind 
and  morals  of  a  child  as  well  as  on  its  physical 
well-being  to  be  deprived  of  proper  or  sufficient 
nourishment  during  the  years  of  growth  and 
development?  If  child  welfare  is  the  legitimate, 
rightful  responsibility  of  every  Christian  woman, 
then  it  behooves  us  to  see  that  such  scenes  as 
the  following  cease  to  be  possible  anywhere  in 
the  world. 


nig 


The  Child  in  its  Helplessness  31 

One  mother,  a  widow  with  four  children  dependent 
on  her,  told  me,  with  tears  streaming  down  her  face,  how 
she  had  tried  to  throw  away  the  skeleton-like  little  baby 
she  carried  in  her  arms,  but  she  said  the  child  always  found 
its  way  back  to  her,  and  she  added,  "It  is  not  easy  to  give 
one's  own  child  away."  She  said  she  felt  sometimes 
she  would  just  have  to  drink  poison,  and  put  an  end  to 
her  miserable  existence,  and  one  of  the  others  asked  her 
what  would  become  of  her  children  if  she  did  that,  and 
she  said,  with  despair  in  every  feature,  "Don't  ask  me."* 

In  a  later  chapter  we  shall  learn  of  what  is 
being  done  through  Christian  orphanages  for 
many  little  famine  waifs  and  the  orphans  of 
those  killed  in  battle  and  massacre,  but,  when 
we  consider  the  untold  harm  to  body  and  mind 
that  has  befallen  these  children  before  help 
reaches  them,  we  realize  that  we  must  hereafter 
work  with  heart  and  soul  at  the  task  of  prevention 
of  these  great  evils  if  we  believe  in  the  welfare 
of  the  human  race. 

"Health,"  we  are  told  by  Dr.  E.  T.  Devine,  Health, 
"is  influenced  by  the  occupations  and  habits  of 
growing  children;  by  their  play  and  their  at- 
tendance at  school;  by  the  attention  given  to 
their  eyesight,  hearing,  breathing,  and  digestion, 
to  their  spines,  and  to  the  arches  of  their  feet, 
to  their  position  at  the  desk,  and  to  the  type  from 
which  their  text  books  are  printed;  by  the 
readiness  with  which  they  make  friends  and  so 
enter  into  the  natural  sports  and  exercises  of 

*  Missionary   Review  of.  the  World,   June,   1911,    W.  D.  &  A.  T. 
Bostick. 


32  The  Child  in  the  Midst 

childhood;  by  the  development  of  their  self- 
control,  and  their  more  or  less  unconscious 
acceptance  of  standards  of  conduct  and  prin- 
ciples of  action  which  will  be  their  ultimate  safe- 
guard against  those  diseases  and  weaknesses 
which  come  from  indulgence  of  wrong  appetites 
and  desires." 
Foot-binding.  Judged  by  these  standards,  what  chances 
have  the  children  of  Asia  and  Africa  and  the 
Pacific  Islands  for  being  safeguarded  against 
disease  and  weakness  and  death?  Consider  the 
one  matter  of  "attention  to  the  arches  of  their 
feet"  and  compare  such  a  standard  of  health 
with  the  age-long  custom  of  foot-binding  in 
China,  and  what  hope  is  there  for  perfect, 
blooming  health  among  the  women  of  China  or 
their  children?  A  full  description  of  the  horrible 
custom  of  foot-binding  may  be  found  in  Dr. 
James  S.  Dennis's  "Christian  Missions  and  Social 
Progress"  (vol.  1,  p.  212).  The  effects  of  it 
upon  the  little  girl  victims  are  thus  described  by 
one  who  has  every  right  to  speak  on  the  subject. 

Mrs.  Archibald  Little,  whose  position  as  president  of 
the  Natural-feet  Society  has  given  her  special  reason  for 
investigating,  says  in  her  book,  "Intimate  China";  "Dur- 
ing the  first  three  years  (of  foot-binding)  the  girlhood  of 
China  presents  a  most  melancholy  spectacle.  Instead 
of  a  hop,  skip,  and  a  jump,  with  rosy  cheeks  like  the 
little  girls  of  England,  the  poor  little  things  are  leaning 
heavily  on  a  stick  somewhat  taller  than  themselves,  or 
carried  on  a  man's  back,  or  sitting  sadly  crying.  They 
have  great  black  lines  under  their  eyes,  and  a  special  cu- 


<s 


S  s 


u  1- 

w  u 

3  a. 

O 

—  .5 

i  s 


The  Child  in  its  Helplessness  33 

rious  paleness  that  I  have  never  seen  except  in  connection 
with  foot-binding.  Their  mothers  sleep  with  a  big  stick 
by  the  bedside,  with  which  to  get  up  and  beat  the  little 
girl  should  she  disturb  the  household  by  her  wails;  but 
not  uncommonly  she  is  put  to  sleep  in  an  outhouse. 
The  only  relief  she  gets  is  either  from  opium,  or  from 
hanging  her  feet  over  the  edge  of  her  wooden  bedstead,  so 
as  to  stop  the  circulation.  The  Chinese  saying  is,  "For 
each  pair  of  bound  feet  there  has  been  a  whole  kang,  or 
big  bath,  full  of  tears."  And  they  say  that  one  girl  out 
of  ten  dies  of  foot-binding  or  its  after-effects."* 

Among  the  changes  that  are  sweeping  over 
China,  the  Anti-foot-binding  Movement  ranks 
high  in  importance.  It  is  receiving  daily  im- 
petus by  reason  of  all  the  new  things  Chinese 
women  and  girls  want  to  do,  which  are  impossible 
to  accomplish  unless  they  can  walk  instead  of 
hobble.  When  this  movement  has  really  con- 
quered the  custom  and  "fashion"  of  centuries, 
there  will  be  a  better  health  report  from  the  girls 
of  China. 

Utter  carelessness  or  ignorance  of  the  first 
principles  of  cleanliness  is  responsible  for  much 
ill-health  and  death.  A  "  swat-the-fly  campaign" 
would  save  thousands  of  unprotected  baby  faces 
from  being  covered  with  loathsome  disease  or 
disfigured  with  dangerous  eye  trouble,  but  it 
would  encounter  not  only  hopeless  inertia, — it 
would  arouse  serious  religious  opposition.  In 
some  countries  the  "sacredness  of  life"  means, — 
Protect  the  fly,  no  matter  what  happens  to  the 
baby. 

*  M.  E.  Ritzman  in  Missionary  Review  of  the  World,  Feb.,  1911. 


34 


The  Child  in  the  Midst 


Medical     prac- 
tice in  non- 
Christian 
lands. 


..ontairious 


One  subject,  upon  which  Dr.  Devine  has  not 
touched  in  his  list  given  above,  is  the  necessity 
for  the  protection  of  well  children  from  contagious 
diseases,  and  of  skilful,  tender  care  of  the  sick. 
We  might  easily  fill  a  chapter  with  the  study  of 
so-called  "medical  practice"  as  conducted  in 
non-Christian  lands, — a  practice  composed  largely 
of  mingled  superstition,  ignorance,  cruelty,  and 
avarice — but  a  few  pages  on  the  subject  in  addi- 
tion to  our  earlier  study  of  what  takes  place  at 
the  time  of  childbirth  will  suffice,  we  trust,  to 
make  earnest  Christian  women  desire  to  study 
it  further.  It  is  easy  to  shrink  from  contem- 
plating the  sufferings  of  innocent  children,  and 
many  a  woman  is  tempted  to  say,  "I  am  too 
sensitive,  I  cannot  hear  about  such  things." 
But  are  we  more  sensitive  than  the  little,  shrink- 
ing, pitiful  children  to  Whom  these  things  happen 
daily?  Therefore,  not*  to  encourage  morbid 
curiosity,  but  in  order  that  as  Christian  mothers 
and  sisters  we  may  lift  the  burden  from  little 
shoulders  unable  to  bear  it,  let  us  fearlessly  face 
the  facts  as  they  are. 

The  frightful  ravages  made  by  smallpox, 
diphtheria,  scarlet  fever,  and  even  the  milder 
"children's  diseases,"  such  as  measles  and  whoop- 
ing-cough, often  devastate  whole  towns  and  carry 
away  the  larger  part  of  the  children  in  a  com- 
munity. Smallpox,  for  instance,  is  so  common 
in  Korea  that  it  is  not  considered  worth  while  to 
try  to  escape  it.     It  is  caused  by  the  visit  of  a 


The  Child  in  its  Helplessness  35 

very  great  and  honored  spirit,  and  while  he  re- 
mains the  children  are  addressed  in  high  sounding 
terms  in  honor  of  their  great  guest.  When  he 
is  about  ready  to  return  to  the  south  land,  i.e., 
when  the  child  has  nearly  recovered,  a  feast  is 
made  in  honor  of  the  visitor  and  he  is  provided 
with  a  wooden  horse  for  his  journey. 

On  an  itinerating  journey  in  Korea  Dr.  and 
Mrs.  Underwood  with  their  little  boy  stopped 
at  a  village  called  Pak  Chun  and  had  a  rather 
disturbing  experience. 

Just  before  leaving,  I  saw  a  child  quite  naked,  covered 
with  smallpox  pustules  in  full  bloom,  standing  near  our 
door.  I  asked  one  of  the  natives  if  there  was  much  of 
that  disease  in  the  village  at  present.  "In  every  house," 
was  the  concise  reply.  "Why,  there  is  none  in  the  house 
we  are  in,"  said  I  with  confidence.  "Oh,  no,  they  took 
the  child  out  the  day  you  came  in  order  to  give  you  the 
room,"  was  the  reassuring  answer.  We  had  eaten  and 
slept  in  that  infected  little  room,  our  blankets  all  spread 
out  there,  our  trunks  opened,  everything  we  had  exposed. 
We  had  even  used  their  cooking  utensils  and  spoons  and 
bowls  before  our  own  packs  had  arrived.  For  ourselves 
we  had  been  often  exposed,  and  believed  ourselves  immune. 
Mr.  Underwood  had  nursed  a  case  of  the  most  malignant 
type,  and  I  had  been  in  contact  with  it  among  my  patients, 
— but  our  child!  So  we  sent  a  swift  messenger  with  a 
despatch  to  the  nearest  telegraph  station,  twenty-four 
hours  away,  to  Dr.  Wells,  in  Pyeng  Yang.  He  at  once 
put  a  tube  of  virus  into  the  hands  of  a  speedy  runner, 
who  arrived  with  it  a  week  later. 

We  found  the  country  full  of  smallpox,  measles,  and 
whooping-cough,  and  added  io  our  smallpox  experience 
an  exactly  similar  one  with  measles.* 

*  L.  H.  Underwood,  "Fifteen  Years  among  the  Top-Knots,"  Am 
Tract  Soc. 


86  The  Child  in  the  Midst 

The  loud  death  wail  goes  up  from  a  village 
home  in  Persia  where  a  little  life  has  been  snatched 
away  by  diphtheria.  Instantly  every  mother  in 
the  village  seizes  her  baby  and  the  next-to-the- 
youngest  toddles  after,  and  all  gather  in  the  fam- 
ily room  of  the  little  mud  home,  where  the  body 
lies,  and  show  their  sympathy  by  adding  their 
voices  to  the  general  din.  Fortunately  custom 
decrees  that  burial  take  place  as  speedily  as 
possible,  but  the  mischief  has  already  been 
done,  and  echoes  of  the  death  wail  are  heard  from 
far  and  near. 

Call  over  the  roll  of  physicians  of  your  own 
Board.  A  wonderful  report  it  would  be  if  each 
could  respond  and  give  the  number  of  epidemics 
through  which  he  or  she  has  worked  unflinch- 
ingly, bringing  hope  and  comfort  and  life  to 
hundreds  and  thousands  stricken  down  not  only 
by  the  diseases  already  mentioned  but  by  typhus, 
cholera,  and  plague.  Call  the  roll  of  the  coun- 
tries where  no  law  demands  isolation  or  pre- 
cautions of  any  kind,  and  one  after  another 
would  respond,  if  it  could,  in  terms  of  loving 
gratitude  to  missionaries  who  have  introduced  or 
freely  used  vaccine,  anti-toxin,  cholera  serum, 
and  other  products  of  medical  science.  Many 
lands  are  now  awaking  to  the  possibility  and 
desirability  of  using  preventive  measures,  and 
vaccination,  for  instance,  is  very  prevalent  in 
China.  It  is  good  to  hear  Dr.  Estella  Perkins 
of  China  say,  after  an  epidemic  of  scarlet  fever, 


The  Child  in  its  Helplessness  3? 

"I  must  say,  however,  that  these  young  mothers 
have  been  very  obedient  to  orders.  I  know  by 
the  number  of  dispensary  cases  of  sequelae  in 
patients  I  did  not  treat,  that  the  careful  follow- 
ing of  directions  by  the  mothers  of  my  children 
must  have  saved  half  of  them  from  bad  results 
of  the  disease.  It  is  a  comfort  to  be  able  to 
do  something  more  than  prescribe  a  little  medi- 
cine." 

We  spoke  above  of  the  ignorance,  cruelty,  su-  Cruel  treat- 
perstition,  and  avarice  that  compose  so  largely  the  children, 
medical  practice  of  the  Orient.  Disease  is  very 
frequently  considered  the  work  of  an  evil  spirit 
which  must  either  be  appeased  by  offerings  or 
driven  out  by  harsh  and  cruel  treatment.  And 
so  the  tender  little  bodies  are  branded  with  hot 
irons,  pierced  by  needles,  or  burned  with  rags 
dipped  in  oil  and  set  on  fire.  While  the  little 
one  suffers,  a  witch  doctor  may  be  called  in  to 
use  his  incantations,  or  the  mother  may  take  a 
little  rag  from  some  article  of  the  child's  clothing 
and  tie  it  to  a  sacred  tree  already  covered  with 
hundreds  of  these  rags,  or  the  string  of  beads  or 
the  entrails  of  a  beast  are  consulted  to  see  if  the 
omen  is  favorable  for  administering  medicine. 
Let  me  give  just  one  case  from  Central  Africa 
which  can  be  duplicated  many  times  over  from 
the  records  of  other  lands. 

As  an  example  let  me  give  the  case  of  a  lad  who  was 
suffering  from  tuberculosis.  He  had  consulted  the  witch 
doctor,  and  after  having  paid  his  fee  was  told  that  he  had 


38  The  Child  in  the  Midst 

been  poisoned.  Whereupon  the  "surgeon"  drew  his 
knife  out  from  his  belt  and  made  a  number  of  small  in- 
cisions. He  then  declared  he  could  see  the  poison  inside 
the  youth,  and  took  it  away.  But  the  lad  was  not  cured, 
and  so  came  down  to  give  the  European's  wisdom  a  trial.* 

forslckchudren/    Thank  God,  there  is  a  brighter  side  to  the 
J  story.     In  the  name  of  the  little  Child  of  Bethle- 
J  hem  the  little  children  of  sorrow  and  darkness 
\  and  suffering  are  being  reached  and  helped  and 
J  cured  and  loved.     In  many  a  mission  hospital 
I  and  many  a  humble  home  the  blind  are  receiving 
I    sight,  the  crooked  limbs  are  being  straightened, 
\the  burning  fever  is  checked,  the  hollow  cheeks 
are  growing  round  and  rosy.     The  last  word  pic- 
ture of  this  chapter  shall  be  from  the  pen  of  Mrs. 
Gerald  F.  Dale,  the  mother-saint  who  presides 
over  the  women's  and   children's   hospitals  in 
Beirut,  Syria. 
Children's  The  Children's  Pavilion  is  the  arena  which  calls  into 

Bdrut0n'  Plav  tne  whole  gamut  of  one's  emotions.     Such  poor, 

wasted  faces;  such  robust,  jolly  faces;  so  much  pain; 
so  much  fun;  twisted  limbs  before  operation,  straight 
ones  after;  noses  and  mouths  cobbled  and  mended,  a 
stitch  here,  a  fold  there,  and  what  a  change!  It  requires 
the  standpoint  of  the  East  to  unravel  the  full  meaning  of 
little  Hindiyeh's  exclamation,  who,  gazing  in  admiration 
at  her  straightened  legs,  looked  up  with  a  merry  laugh 
and  said:  "Curse  the  religion  of  the  father  of  my  legs 
as  they  used  to  be!"  A  baby-boy  was  to  have  no  say 
in  the  matter  of  his  poor  crumpled-up  little  club-feet, 
for  the  mother  begged  that  only  one  might  be  straightened, 
in  order  to  save  him  from  military  service  in  the  future.  .  . 
The  children's  favorite  game  is  "operations,"  the  patient 

*  Ruth  B.  Fisher,  "On  the  Borders  of  Pigmy  Land."     RevelL 


The  Child  in  its  Helplessness  39 

being  in  turn  a  rfeqj  child  or  a  doll.  Everything  is  repro- 
duced to  the  life.  A  pin  stuck  into  the  doll's  mouth  is  a 
thermometer;  sawdust  stuffing  makes  a  most  realistic 
draining  wound;  bits  of  wire  and  gauze  are  twisted  into 
a  mask,  and  chloroform  is  poured  from  an  empty  spool. 
The  scientific  bandaging  of  head,  legs,  and  arms  shows 
how  intently  the  little  brains  have  observed.  They  are 
busy  with  other  things  too;  hymn  after  hymn  is  learned, 
the  commandments,  verses,   psalms. 

Everything  that  is  dropped  into  these  receptive  minds 
stays,  and  once  there  will  be  shared,  who  can  tell  by  how 
many?  It  is  the  little  child  who  shall  lead,  and  it  is  the 
handful  of  corn  whose  fruit  shall  shake  like  Lebanon.* 

1"The  place  where  the  young  Child  lay"  was  TheChriat- 
.,  *  ,  ,i       ■•  m  ,i         l  i  •    •  Child  and  these 

the  place  where  the  brooding  mother  love  shining  little  ones, 
from  the  tender  mother  eyes  hovered  over  the 
little  One  to  guard  and  protect  and  care  for  Him 
in  His  appealing  helplessness.  And  from  those 
lips,  once  cooing  in  sweet  babyhood,  come  down 
to  us  the  words, — "Inasmuch  as  ye  did  it  unto 
I  one  of  the  least  of  these  -little  ones,  ye  did  it  unto 

S&e." 

QUOTATIONS 

Childbirth — China 

Mary  V.  Glenton,  Wuchang,  China,  writes  in  the 
Spirit  of  Missions  for  July,  1902 : 

Recently  I  was  called  to  a  case  of  childbirth  away  out  in 
the  country.  My  native  assistant  had  asked  for  a  holi- 
day; she  had  gone  that  morning.  After  a  long  ride  in 
the  chair  through  country  roads,  past  the  pagoda,  I  was 
ushered  into  a  small  house  of  two  rooms  and  then  into 
one  of  these  rooms  to  my  patient.  When  I  shut  the  door 
to  keep  the  crowd  out,  and  had  thrown  water  out  the 
window  several  times  for  the  same  purpose,  ineffectually, 
*  Woman's  Work,  Dec,  1911,  p.  271. 


40  The  Child  in  the  Midst 

I  found  that  I  must  have  some  light  and  also  some  air; 
so  I  stationed  one  chair  coolie  at  the  door  and  another  at 
the  window,  and  started  in.  I  had  to  give  chloroform 
myself,  as  well  as  do  the  rest  of  the  work.  But  after 
four  hours'  hard  work,  so  hard  that  while  my  feet  were 
cold  on  the  earth  floor  (it  was  February),  the  upper  part 
of  my  body  was  in  profuse  perspiration,  I  got  through, 
and  saved  the  woman's  life. 

Immediately  there  arose  a  most  tumultuous  screaming, 
shrieking,  stamping,  calling,  flapping  doors  back  and 
forth  on  their  hinges,  and  any  sort  of  noise  that  could  be 
made.  I  had  never  heard  such  a  din  in  my  life.  What 
was  coming  I  could  not  imagine.  I  was  miles  away  from 
home;  it  was  growing  dark;  I  had  no  one  with  me, 
whom  I  knew  or  could  reason  with,  but  the  chair  coolies, 
one  of  whom  was  a  mere  boy,  the  other  a  perfect  goose, 
who  thinks  himself  unusually  intelligent.  I  managed  to 
make  myself  heard  after  a  while,  enough  to  ask  what  they 
were  doing,  and  found  that  all  the  din  and  racket  were  to 
frighten  away  the  spirit  of  the  dead  baby  that  had  just 
been  born. 

MOHAMMEDAN  BABIES  AND  CHRISTIAN  SOL- 
DIERS 

During  the  Balkan  War  a  number  of  Bulgarian  soldiers 
came  into  a  village  which  had  been  deserted  by  the 
Turks,  and  there  they  found  eight  little  Turkish  babies 
who  had  been  left  behind, — girls  of  course.  They  were 
in  a  dreadful  condition,  but  the  tender  heart  of  one  of  the 
soldiers  could  not  bear  to  leave  them  so.  He  found  a 
tub,  and  they  undressed  the  babies,  bathed  them,  and, 
taking  some  cloth  from  a  store,  bound  them  all  up  again 
in  Oriental  fashion.  The  tiny  ladies,  being  very  hungry, 
continued  to  cry.  The  dilemma  was  how  to  find  food 
for  these  eight  babies,  all  under  a  year  of  age.  The 
kind-hearted  Bulgarian  was  equal  to  the  emergency. 
Dispatching  one  of  his  comrades  to  a  neighboring  village 


The  Child  in  its  Helplessness  41 

for  some  milk,  he  proceeded  to  kill  eight  geese.  Remov- 
ing and  cleaning  the  crops  from  these,  he  filled  them  with 
the  milk,  using  goose  quills  for  nipples,  and  soon  the 
eight  babies  were  fast  asleep.  Then  they  sent  them  on 
into  Bulgaria  to  be  cared  for,  with  greetings  from  Turkey. 
(Told  by  Mrs.  E.  E.  Count  of  the  Methodist  Episco- 
pal Mission  in  Bulgaria.) 

BIBLE  READING 

"What  manner  of  Child  shall  this  be?"  Luke  1:  5-14, 
57-66,  80. 

The  little  child  greatly  longed  for — promised  by  God's 
messenger — rejoiced  over  at  .birth — named  "Jehovah  is 
gracious,"  not  according  to  custom  but  with  peculiar 
significance — grew  in  stature — waxed  strong  in  spirit — 
God's  hand  was  with  him. 

"When  I  see  a  child  he  inspires  me  with  two  feelings; 
tenderness  for  what  he  is  now,  respect  for  what  he  may 
become  hereafter."     Louis  Pasteur. 

PRAYER 

O  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  we  beseech  Thee,  by  the  innocence 
and  obedience  of  Thy  Holy  childhood,  guard  the  children 
of  this  our  land  and  of  all  lands;  preserve  their  innocence, 
strengthen  them  when  ready  to  slip,  recover  the  erring, 
and  remove  all  that  may  hinder  them  from  being  really 
brought  up  in  Thy  faith  and  love;  Who  livest  and  reign- 
est  with  the  Father  and  the  Holy  Ghost  ever,  one  God, 
world  without  end.     Amen. 

QUESTIONS 

1.  What  do  you  consider  the  greatest  need  of  the 
children  of  your  community? 

2.  How  does  this  need  compare  with  the  needs  of 
children  in  the  mission  land  in  which  you  are  most  inter- 
ested? 


42  The  Child  in  the  Midst 

3.  Name  the  organizations  in  your  community  that 
deal  with  Child  Welfare  (i.e.,  milk  station,  children's 
hospital  ward,  etc.).  How  many  of  these  exist  in  non- 
Christian  lands?     By  whom  were  they  introduced? 

4.  What  can  a  ruling  power  like  the  British  Govern- 
ment in  India  do  to  bring  about  better  conservation  of 
motherhood? 

5.  How  would  you  go  to  work  to  eradicate  harmful 
superstitions  in  a  Mohammedan  land? 

6.  If  you  were  conducting  a  series  of  six  mothers' 
meetings  in  China,  what  topics  would  you  select? 

BIBLIOGRAPHY.    CHAPTERS  I  AND   II. 

Child  Problems,  George  B.  Mangold — Macmillan. 
"European  Institutions  for  Protection  of  Motherhood," 

etc.     Theodore  L.  Smith,  Pedagogical  Seminary,  Mar. 

1912. 
The  Problem  of  Race  Regeneration,  Havelock  Ellis. 
Parenthood  and  Race  Culture,  Saleeby. 
The  Family  and  Social  Life,  E.  T.  Devine. 
Fifteen  Years  Among  the  Top-Knots,  L.  H.  Underwood — 

Am.  Tract  Soc. 
Home  Life  in  Turkey,  Lucy  M.  J.  Garnett — Macmillan. 
Fetish  Folk  of  West  Africa,  R.  H.  Milligan— Revell. 
Jungle  Days,  Arley  Munson,  M.D. — D.  Appleton  &  Co. 
Our  Sisters  in  India,  Rev.  E.  Storrow,  Chapter  vii — 

Revell. 
"The  Unbinding  of  Bright  Blossom's  Feet,"    Everyland, 

March,  1913. 
The  Light  of  the  World,  R.  E.  Speer,  Infanticide,  pp. 

353,  354. 
Christian   Missions  and  Social  Progress,  J.   S.   Dennis, 

Infanticide,  vol.  i,  p.  133. 
When  I  Was  a  Boy  in  China,  Ian  Phon  Lee — Y.  M.  C.  A. 

Press. 
Village  Life  in  China,  Arthur  H.  Smith — Revell. 


The  Child  in  its  Helplessness  43 

Village  Life  in  Korea,  J.  R.  Moose — M.  E.  Church,  South. 

The  Chinese  at  Home,  J.  Dyer  Ball — Revell. 

On  the  Borders  of  Pigmy  Land,  Ruth  B.  Fisher — Revell. 

"The  Training  of  a  Japanese  Child,"  Francis  Little — Cen- 
tury, June,  1913. 
For  leaflets  and  Children's  Magazines  see  Bibliography 

for  Chapter  II. 

Much  valuable  material  will  be  found  for  this  and  the 

following  chapters  in  all  the  earlier  text-books  of  the  Central 

Committee  on  the  United  Study  of  Foreign  Missions.     These 

books,  studied  with  special  reference  to  The  Child,  will  bring 

new  light  and  interest  to  their  readers. 


^ 


CHAPTER  II. 


THE  CHILD  AT  HOME 
"Train  up  a  child  in  the  way  he  should  go." 


A  Mohammedan  home  in  Persia — A  heathen 
home  in  Africa — A  Christian  home  in  Zululand 
— The  home  the  centre  of  a  nation's  life — 
Christianity's  gift  to  non-Christian  homes — 
Greatness  of  the  task — Disorderly  homes — Moral 
influences — Need  of  teaching  the  mothers — Lack 
of  proper  discipline — Lack  of  innocence  coupled 
with  appalling  ignorance — Sex  knowledge — A 
missionary  mother's  "  dream" — Position  of  fathers 
— Fathers  transformed  by  Christianity — Mother- 
hood— Christian  wives  and  mothers — Child  mar- 
riage— Betrothal  customs — Dying  child-wife — 
Child  widows — Homes  of  the  world  need  Christ — 
Vocation  of  a  missionary  wife — Missionary  homes. 


CHAPTER  II. 

THE  CHILD  AT  HOME 
"Train  up  a  child  in  the  way  he  should  go.' 


Scene  One:  A  Mohammedan  home  in  Persia.       AMoham- 

medan  home  in 

The  women  s  apartments  opening  onto  an  Persia, 
inner  court-yard  present  an  animated  scene,  for 
some  ladies  from  another  harem  have  come  with 
children  and  servants  to  make  a  call;  i.e.,  to 
spend  the  afternoon,  drink  unlimited  quantities 
of  tea  and  pussy-willow-water,  smoke  unnum- 
bered cigarettes  alternating  with  the  water  pipe, 
and  nibble  at  sweetmeats  and  fruits  provided  in 
large  abundance.  The  greetings  are  conducted 
with  due  decorum  by  women  and  children,  and 
then,  while  the  servants  and  concubines  of  the 
home  move  to  and  fro  with  the  proper  refresh- 
ments, and  while  the  children  dispose  of  large 
quantities  of  sweets,  the  gossip  of  the  neighbor- 
hood is  discussed  with  animation.  The  conver- 
sation,— no,  it  cannot  be  repeated  here,  for  it  is 
not  fit  for  the  printed  page;  but  little  girls  sit 
eagerly  drinking  it  in,  and  little  boys  stop  in 
their  play  to  wink  at  each  other  with  knowing 
looks  as  they  catch  the  drift  of  the  talk.*   A 


48  The  Child  in  the  Midst 

mere  baby  crawls  up  to  attract  his  mother's 
attention  and,  not  succeeding,  slaps  her  with 
all  his  tiny  might  as  she  sits  on  a  cushion  on  the 
floor.  "Oh  brave  boy!  oh  splendid  boy!  just 
see  how  he  hits  me  when  I  do  not  listen  to  him!" 
And  the  little  boy  is  hugged  and  his  wishes  are 
granted  while  he  learns  well  his  lesson  of  the 
inferiority  of  a  woman, — even  his  mother.  Pres- 
ently a  little  girl  begins  to  scream  vigorously, 
having  been  pounded  and  scratched  by  a  small 
boy  in  the  party.  The  lad  is  rewarded  for  his 
manliness  with  a  big  piece  of  saffron  candy,  but 
the  girl,  being  a  visitor,  must  be  consoled;  and 
so  the  delightful  promise  is  made:  "Never  mind; 
stop  crying,  and  we  will  find  you  a  nice  husband. 
Now  wouldn't  it  be  fine  to  arrange  a  marriage 
for  her  with  the  son  of  — ?"  and  so  the  whole 
matter  is  discussed  in  the  child's  hearing,  and 
she  too  learns  her  lesson, — that  the  one  ambition 
of  a  girl  must  be  to  get  married  as  early  as  pos- 
sible, and  the  more  valuable  she  is,  the  greater 
settlement  must  her  prospective  husband  make 
upon  her,  to  be  paid  in  case  he  wishes  to  divorce 
her. 

It  is  evening,  the  visitors  are  gone,  and  the 
head  of  the  home  with  the  older  boys  will  take 
his  evening  meal  in  the  anderun  (women's  apart- 
ment). No  cloth  is  spread  for  the  whole  family. 
The  husband  and  sons  are  served  on  large  copper 
trays  by  the  women  of  the  household,  who  eat 
later  what  is  left.     The  husband  is  in  a  wretched 


In  a  Korean  Home 


The  Child  at  Home  49 

mood  and  vents  his  anger  right  and  left.  Even 
the  favorite  wife,  a  young  girl  who  has  recently 
superseded  in  his  affections  the  mothers  of  his 
children,  trembles  for  her  position  when  the  rice 
is  not  to  his  taste;  and  suddenly  at  some  further 
provocation  he  turns  upon  her,  and  with  the 
words,  "I  divorce  you,"  sends  her  cowering  from 
him,  a  divorced  woman  of  fifteen,  amid  the 
sneers  and  insults  of  those  who  served  and 
fawned  on  her  earlier  in  the  day. 

Scene  Two:  A  hut  in  Central  Africa. 

Soon  after  sunrise  a  number  of  women  and  £hAfr£jj,nhome 
girls,  laden  with  hoes,  baskets,  and  babies,  start 
'  out  from  the  grass  hut  which  is  home  to  them, 
and  make  their  way  to  the  field  to  work  all  day 
in  the  hot  sun.  Having  leisurely  smoked  his 
pipe  in  preparation  for  the  day's  labors,  the  man 
of  the  house  starts  with  sons  and  neighbors  on 
a  hunting  expedition,  or  goes  to  a  neighboring 
town  to  exchange  his  stock  for  some  coveted 
article.  Towards  evening  all  is  bustle  and  con- 
fusion about  the  home,  as  the  women  have  re- 
turned and  are  preparing  the  evening  meal. 
All  goes  merrily,  for  here  comes  the  head  of  the 
house  in  an  excellent  humor.  Picking  up  the 
nearest  baby,  he  fondles  it  and  says,  "A  man  in 
the  next  town  has  just  bought  this  baby  of  me 
as  wife  for  his  son.  Being  strong  and  fat  and 
lusty,  she  has  brought  a  good  price."  Where- 
upon a  small  brother  shouts  with  delight,  for 


50  The  Child  in  the  Midst 

this  means  that  the  dowry  for  his  wife  is  provided 
and  the  girl  on  whom  he  has  set  his  affections 
can  be  procured  without  further  delay.  His 
mother  is  pleased, — the  prospect  adds  to  her 
importance, — but  the  seventeen  year  old  mother 
of  the  fat,  cooing  baby  turns  away  to  hide  her 
face  and  surreptitiously  to  hug  her  two  other 
children.  "Anyway,  they  are  boys;  they  cannot 
be  taken  from  me." 

The  boy  who  is  to  profit  by  the  sale  of  his  little 
sister  is  not  suited  with  his  evening  meal,  and, 
catching  a  chicken,  he  cuts  off  one  leg  and  de- 
mands that  it  be  cooked  for  him.  No  thought 
of  the  suffering  fowl  interferes  with  his  appetite, 
any  more  than  of  the  little  sister  so  soon  to  be 
sent  out  on  the  forest  trail,  her  little  brown 
body  carefully  oiled,  to  be  subjected  to  the  blows 
and  ill-treatment  of  an  unknown  mother-in- 
law.  But  even  before  the  little  one  goes,  she 
has  learned  her  life  lessons, — that  a  lie  is  a  crime 
only  if  it  is  discovered, — that  if  she  does  not  like 
her  husband  she  may  console  herself  with  some 
other  man  so  long  as  she  is  not  found  out.  And, 
after  all,  the  relation  may  be  of  short  duration, 
for,  if  her  future  husband  is  unkind,  one  of  his 
wives  will  surely  be  an  adept  in  the  art  of  poison- 
ing, and  then  all  of  them  will  be  inherited  by  his 
brother.  And  so  the  little  brown  baby,  fondled, 
petted,  spoiled  today,  is  sent  out  tomorrow  with 
foul  words  on  her  tongue  and  foul  thoughts  in 
her  heart,  to  be  a  wife  and  the  future  mother  of 


The  Child  at  Home 


51 


little  brown  babies  whose  possibilities  are  in- 
finite, whose  opportunities  are  to  be, — what? 

Scene  three :   A  Christian  Home  in  ZululancL*  a  christian 

ii -r    1  ii-  ini-/»       home  in  Zulu- 

I  have  already  given  you  a  peep  at  the  hie  land. 
in  a  heathen  kraal.  Now  repair  to  a  Christian 
home.  Here  we  find  everything  simpler  and 
more  quiet.  Here  polygamy,  with  all  its  attend- 
ant sensualities  and  riot,  has  given  place  to 
restraint  of  passions  and  a  purer  union.  Here 
is  but  one  house  and  one  wife.  The  ChristiaD 
man's  love  is  now  undivided,  and  all  his  efforts 
are  centred  in  one  objective.  The  single  house 
is  no  longer  a  stack  of  grass  enclosing  a  dungeon 
of  darkness,  but  a  square-walled  building,  humble 
indeed,  but  airy  and  bright.  In  place  of  being 
obliged  to  crawl  like  animals  on  our  knees  into 
the  heathen  hut,  we  may  enter  erect  as  becomes 
the  dignity  of  man,  through  swinging  doors. 
We  come  not  into  a  smoky  darkness,  but  into 
a  dwelling  flooded  with  the  light  of  glazed  win- 
dows. In  the  kraal  we  found  the  whole  family, 
old  and  young,  male  and  female,  huddled  to- 
gether night  and  day  in  the  one  small  room; 
here  we  have  a  dwelling  with  separate  rooms,  so 
that  parents  and  children  and  strangers  may 
each  enjoy  some  privacy.  The  air  is  not  only 
light  with  sunshine;  it  is  also  pure  and  clean, 
for  no  cooking  operations  are  performed  herein, 


*  John  L.  Dube,  Orange,  Natal,  Missionary  Review,  June,  1912, 
p.  410. 


52 


The  Child  in  the  Midst 


but  in  a  special  kitchen  outside.  In  the  heathen 
hut,  whether  for  sitting  or  sleeping,  we  were 
accommodated  on  the  floor;  now  we  may  sit 
W  ^^y more  respectably  on  chairs,  eat  our  meals  from 
in  a  *aD^e»  and  res*  our  weary  bones  on  a  raised 
/tr[       bed. 

"At  four  or  five  o'clock  in  the  morning,  ac- 
cording to  season, — for  the  Zulu  is  an  early  riser, — 
all  are  up.  We  hear  a  gentle  murmur  from  within. 
Ah!  it  is  the  familiar  sound,  so  sweet  to  us,  but 
never  heard  in  the  heathen  kraal.  It  is  the  hour 
of  morning  prayer,  when  husband  and  wife  and 
little  ones  join  their  hearts  and  voices  together 
in  a  fervent  hymn  of  praise  or  hopeful  supplica- 
tion for  protection  and  aid." 

The  home  is  the  centre  of  a  nation's  life. 
More  and  more  emphasis  is  being  laid  in  en- 
lightened communities  on  the  need  of  proper 
home  environment  and  on  the  grave  risks  and 
great  dangers  that  accompany  the  lack  of  such 
environment.  If  one  studies  the  labors  and 
writings  of  the  great  social  and  religious  workers 
of  today,  this  note  of  emphasis  on  home  life  and 
training  will  be  heard  to  ring  out  loud  and  clear, 
above  all  other  sounds  of  harmony  or  discord, — 
a  call  to  meet  a  definite  need. 

Dr.  Devine  has  voiced  this  thought  and  en- 
larged upon  it  in  its  various  phases  in  his  recent 
book,  "The  Family  and  Social  Work,"  in  which 
he  claims  that  "To  maintain  normal  family  life, 
to  restore  it  when  it  has  been  interfered  with, 


The  Child  at  Home  68 

to  create  conditions  more  and  more  favorable 
to  it,  is  thus  the  underlying  object  of  all  our 
social  work.  Efforts  to  relieve  distress  and  to 
improve  general  conditions  are  shaped  by  our 
conception  of  what  constitutes  normal  family 
life." 

Any  candid  woman  who  has  studied  the  "home-  SjtolSSf" 
scenes"  at  the  beginning  of  this  chapter  and  has  ££™jfan 
then  proceeded  (as  it  is  hoped  and  expected  that 
she  will)  to  study  home  conditions  and  surround- 
ings in  other  lands,  will  surely  be  ready  to  admit 
that  the  greatest  gift  Christianity  has  to  offer 
to  a  non-Christian  land  is  the  introduction  of 
the  power  of  the  Christ  life  into  the  homes  of 
that  land.  Dr.  Dennis  lays  great  emphasis  on 
the  necessity  and  opportunity  for  missionary 
endeavor  along  this  line. 

The  reconstruction  of  the  family,  next  to  the  regenera- 
tion of  individual  character,  is  the  most  precious  contri- 
bution of  missions  to  heathen  society,  and  we  may  add 
that  it  is  one  of  the  most  helpful  human  influences  which 
can  be  consecrated  to  the  service  of  social  elevation.  In 
the  effort  to  hallow  and  purify  family  life  we  stir  the  secret 
yearning  of  fatherhood  and  motherhood;  we  enter  the 
precincts  of  the  home,  and  take  childhood  by  the  hand; 
we  restore  to  its  place  of  power  and  winsomeness  in  the 
domestic  circle  the  ministry  of  womanhood;  and  at  the 
same  time  we  strike  at  some  of  the  most  despicable  evils 
and  desolating  wrongs  of  our  fallen  world.  Nothing  in 
the  history  of  human  society,  except  the  teaching  and 
example  of  Jesus  Christ,  has  wrought  with  such  energy 
and  wisdom  in  introducing  saving  power  into  social 
development    as    a   sanctified    home    life.    If    parental 


54 


The  Child  in  the  Midst 


Greatness  of 
the  task. 


Disorderly 
homes. 


training  can  be  made  loving,  faithful,  conscientious,  and 
helpful,  if  womanhood  can  be  redeemed  and  crowned,  if 
childhood  can  be  guided  in  tenderness  and  wisdom,  if  the 
home  can  be  made  a  place  where  virtue  dwells,  and  moral 
goodness  is  nourished  and  becomes  strong  and  brave  for 
the  conflicts  of  life,  we  can  conceive  of  no  more  effective 
combination  of  invigorating  influences  for  the  rehabili- 
tation of  fallen  society  than  will  therein  be  given.* 

The  task  fairly  staggers  us  with  its  greatness 
and  its  limitless  scope;  but  let  us  be  big  enough 
to  look  even  beyond  all  this,  and,  with  the  glorious 
capacity  for  motherhood  that  lies  in  every  good 
woman's  breast,  let  us  see  not  only  the  millions 
of  homes  that  are  in  darkness  and  sorrow  and 
degradation  today,  but  also  realize  that  the 
children  of  today  are  to  be  the  fathers  and  mothers 
of  tomorrow.  Our  work  as  a  "great,  beautiful, 
organized  motherhood  for  the  world"  must  in- 
clude the  preparation  of  these  children  to  as- 
sume the  duties  of  parenthood  in  the  future,  and 
to  raise  from  generation  to  generation  the  stand- 
ards of  individual  and  home  and  national  life 
"till  we  all  attain  unto  a  full  grown  man,  unto 
the  measure  of  the  stature  of  the  fulness  of 
Christ." 

The  physical  conditions  of  a  home,  and  the 
moral  and  spiritual  characters  developed  in  the 
home  act  and  re-act  on  each  other  with  clock- 
like precision.  Would  you  expect  a  neat  and 
orderly  housemaid  if  you  engaged  a  girl  from  a 


*  J.  S.  Dennis,  "Chr.  Miss.  &  Soc.  Prog.,"  vol.  ii,  p.  176,  RevelL 


The  Child   at   Home 


55 


home  in  China  which  Mrs.  S.  C.  Perkins  thus 
describes? — 

The  great  mass  of  the  people  live  in  what  can  only  be 
called  hovels,  the  family  occupying  one  room,  shared 
with  pigs  and  chickens;  damp,  dark,  un ventilated,  and 
unclean.  Even  in  the  houses  of  the  rich  there  is  a  certain 
cheerlessness  owing  to  the  lack  of  carpets,  the  absence 
of  sunlight,  and  the  stiff  arrangement  of  the  furniture. 
The  odor  of  incense  in  all  houses  renders  the  atmosphere 
close  and  unpleasant.  The  people  will  not  use  white- 
wash, because  white  is  an  unlucky  color;  indeed,  their 
many  superstitions  interfere  with  the  comfort  of  the 
poorer  classes  quite  as  much  as  does  their  poverty.  In 
Northern  China  every  house  has  its  kang,  a  platform 
of  stone  about  two  feet  high,  underneath  which  a  fire  is 
kindled  for  warmth  and  for  cooking,  the  heat  being 
carried  through  it  by  a  flue  into  the  chimney.  Here  the 
family  sleep  at  night,  sit  by  day,  and  on  it  they  cook 
their  food.** 

How  much  ambition  would  one  be  able  to  arouse 
in  a  school  girl  coming  from  this  home  in  Burma? 

The  home  of  one  of  the  mission  school  girls  is  described 
in  this  way:  "It  is  a  large  teakwood  house,  and  we  walk 
right  in,  for  there  is  no  door  bell.  The  large  hall  is  half 
filled  with  piles  of  wood,  for  the  family  lives  on  the  second 
floor.  A  servant  tells  us  to  go  up,  and  we  climb  the  long 
stairs.  At  the  top  we  find  the  lady  of  the  house  sitting  on 
a  mat  smoking.  She  motions  us  to  be  seated.  In  the 
large  room  are  two  mats,  two  chairs,  and  two  tables.* 

Innocent  childhood,  modesty,  purity  can 
hardly  be  counted  on  in  the  unnumbered  homes 
of  Africa,  India,  Persia,  Korea,  and  other  lands 

**  Mrs.  S.  C.  Perkins,  "Home  Life  in  China."  Pres.  Worn.  Bd. 
of  Miss. 

*  Mrs.  O.  W.  Scott,  "Child  Life  in  Burma."  Worn.  For.  Miss. 
Soc.  M.  E.  Ch. 


56  The  Child  in  the  Midst 

where  the  whole  family  lives  in  one  room,  where 
sons  bring  their  brides  to  swell  the  number  of 
those  whose  every  act  and  word  is  seen  or  heard 
by  the  whole  patriarchal  family.  If  further 
evidence  is  needed  of  the  inter-relation  of  the 
physical  home  surroundings  and  the  formation 
of  character,  study  the  history  of  those  savage 
communities  that  have  come  under  the  power 
of  the  Gospel,  as  for  instance  the  New  Hebrides 
Islands,  and  it  will  be  very  evident  that  "godli- 
ness is  profitable  for  all  things,"  even  for  intro- 
ducing a  comfortable,  tidy  home  in  which  one 
can  stand  upright  and  enjoy  some  degree  of 
privacy! 
Moral  influ-  ln  order  to  learn  what  should  be  done  for 

ences. 

little  children  in  non-Christian  lands,  we  must 
know  in  addition  to  their  physical  needs  some- 
thing of  the  moral  and  spiritual  influences  that 
surround  them.  Of  the  spiritual  influences  we 
shall  speak  in  a  later  chapter,  and,  though  the 
moral  effects  on  life  and  character  have  already 
been  touched  on  in  various  ways,  it  seems  wise 
to  sum  up  briefly  some  of  the  special  home 
influences  that  affect  child  life  in  the  lands  of 
which  we  are  studying.  We  must  be  humble 
and  teachable  too,  for  it  is  true  that  we  Ameri- 
cans could  well  be  learners  when  it  comes  to  the 
lessons  in  filial  piety  taught  to  Chinese  children, 
and  the  careful  attention  to  etiquette  and  social 
graces  which  form  an  important  part  of  the 
training  of  Japanese  girls, 


The  Child   at  Home 


57 


In  a  most  interesting  and  enlightening  study  M^tiSr'ideti. 
of  "  The  Chinese  Mother  Ideal  "*— Mrs.  Gammon 
shows  that  "even  a  cursory  glance  through 
Chinese  literature  reveals  teachings  which  if 
carried  into  effect  might  transform  the  whole 
empire."  But  alas!  "to  the  majority  of  the 
women  of  China  the  printed  page  is  a  sealed 
book,"  and  in  many  of  the  moral  as  well  as  the 
spiritual  teachings  we  find  minute  instructions 
for  outward  observances,  but  no  life-principles 
upon  which  true  character  may  be  built. 

(immodesty,  shocking  impurity,  dishonesty,  Evil  influences 
lying,  disobedience,  foul  and  abusive  language,  the  children, 
quarrelsomeness,  bad  habits,  cruelty,  anger, 
jealousy, — we  might  go  on  with  the  long  terrible 
list  of  influences  that  surround  the  child  from 
babyhood  up,  that  are  a  part  of  his  heritage,  and 
are  not  treated  as  evils  to  be  uprooted  by  care- 
ful training  and  wholesome  example,  but  as 
qualities  to  be  emulated^  One  of  the  "Sacred 
Books"  of  Burma  says,  "A  statement  consti- 
tutes a  lie  when  discovered  by  the  person  to 
whom  it  is  told  to  be  untrue!"  In  the  same  way 
millions  of  children  are  today  being  taught  that 
sin  is  sin  only  when  it  is  found  out  or  when  it 
inconveniences  a  superior  avenging  power.  How 
to  teach  the  mothers  so  that  their  example  and 
precepts  may  produce  different  children,  that 
is  our  great  problem.  (We  hear  of  a  convert  in 
India  who  told  a  missionary  that  she  "often 

*  Life  and  Light,  Aug.,  1912, 


58  The  Child  in  the  Midst 

prays  for  power  to  forget  the  words  she  heard 
and  the  things  she  saw  and  the  games  she  played 
when  she  was  a  little  child  in  her  mother's  room."  ? 
I  often  recall  an  impromptu  mothers'  meeting 
held  on  the  mud  roof  of  a  village  home  in  Persia, 
where  the  text  was  furnished  by  a  self-righteous 
mother  whose  child  had  misbehaved  at  the 
afternoon  service  conducted  by  my  husband. 
The  mother  boasted  that  she  had  dragged  her 
child  out  of  the  meeting  and  beaten  him  on  the 
head  till  his  nose  bled. 

dSdPtoeProper  Of_real  discipline. — punishment  administered 
in  love,  not  in  anger,  for  the  purpose  of  teaching 
great  life  principles,  ,IJiave_yet  to_ discover  a 
trace  in  homes  untouched  by  the  love  of  Christ 
in  the  lands  of  which  we  are  speaking.  Love 
there  is,  and  how  often  the  unexpressed  yearning 
of  the  mother  heart  finds  utterance  at  last  when 
she  comes  into  contact  with  a  mother  who  knows 
of  these  things.  A  young  missionary  mother 
from  China  told  me  about  a  pleasant  gathering  of 

"No  plan."  women  in  her  parlor  after  her  youngest  baby  was 
born.  One  woman  said  to  her,  "I  wish  I  knew 
what  to  do  when  my  children  are  naughty.  I 
have  no  plan."  The  poor  woman  was  nursing 
her  fourth  baby,  and  worn  by  wakeful  nights  and 
constant  nursing  was  in  no  condition,  physically, 
mentally,  or  morally,  to  rule  wisely  her  mischiev- 
ous, disobedient,  crying  children. 

MiM  Hoiuday        From  the  vast  amount  of  interesting  informa- 

on  child  train-        .  .  .    .  .      .  .  .     ,  , 

ing  in  Persia,     tion  which  our  missionaries  are  glad  to  share 


The  Child   at  Home  59 

with  us  the  moment  this  subject  is  broached,  it 
is  difficult  to  select  something  for  the  limited 
space  in  this  chapter.  In  this  as  in  other  in- 
stances, the  intention  is  rather  to  whet  the 
appetite  for  more,  than  to  make  an  exhaustive 
study  of  the  subject.  Miss  G.  Y.  Holliday  of 
Persia  says, — 

I  find  children  passionately  longed  for,  much  loved, 
though  not  at  all  wisely;  often  the  tyrants  of  the  house- 
hold. It  is  a  sad  commentary  on  the  depravity  of  human 
nature,  that  no  matter  what  outrage  a  child  commits  or 
how  abominable  his  conduct  may  be,  it  is  considered  an 
all-sufficient  excuse  to  say,  "He  is  a  child,"  as  if  there  were 
no  such  things  as  good  and  well  behaved  children,  and 
nothing  else  was  to  be  expected  but  disorder  and  dis- 
obedience from  them.  The  atmosphere  of  a  Moslem 
home  is  so  bad  for  them,  with  the  continual  swearing  and 
vile  language.  I  was  talking  one  day  to  a  small  boy, 
the  idol  of  his  grandparents,  with  whom  he  spends  most 
of  his  time.  The  subject  was  family  discipline;  I  said, 
"Parents  sometimes  find  it  necessary  to  punish  the  chil- 
dren." He  replied  with  emphasis,  his  eyes  opening  wider 
and  wider,  "Yes,  parents  whip,  they  kick,  they  strike." 

One  of  the  most  terrible  results  to  children  of  Lack  of  inno- 
cence coupled 

the  lack  of  proper  home  life  and  training  is  loss  Z^^J^118 

of  innocence  coupled  with  appalling  ignorance. 

This  condition  existing  also  in  our  own  land  is 

being  faced  in  these  days  with  new  purpose  and 

determination  by  earnest,  conscientious  men  and 

women  who  are  seeking  in  many  ways  to  find 

and  apply  a  remedy.     From  the  many  strong, 

true  writers  and  speakers  on  this  subject  we 

select  a  few  words  written  by  Professor  E.  P. 


ignorance. 


60 


The  Child  in  the  Midst 


fcrof.  St.  John 
on  sex  knowl- 
edge. 


A  missionary 

mother's 

"dream." 


St.  John  of    the  Hartford  School  of  Religious 
Pedagogy. 

It  is  unsafe  to  leave  a  child  ignorant  about  sex.  The 
writer  firmly  believes  that  a  majority  of  the  evils  that 
appear  in  connection  with  this  phase  of  human  nature 
could  be  avoided  by  simple,  frank  instruction  of  children 
and  youth.  The  great  trouble  has  been  that  parents 
who  have  clean  ideas  about  sex  and  its  relations  have 
kept  their  lips  sealed  on  the  subject.  .  .  Even  if  it  were 
desirable,  children  cannot  be  kept  in  ignorance  of  these 
•things.  Through  the  parents'  neglect  their  thoughts  of 
these  matters  have  too  often  been  perverted  and  impure 
from  the  first.  The  aim  should  be  to  pre-empt  the  ground 
for  cleanness  and  truth. 

All  honor  and  assistance  be  given  to  the 
missionary  mother  who,  feeling  the  horrible  need 
of  China's  children  and  youth  in  this  respect,  is 
spending  much  of  her  furlough  year  in  working 
out  a  plan, — a  "dream"  she  calls  it.  Will  you 
listen  to  her  dream,  and  then  see  if  it  is  not  in 
your  power  to  help  the  missionary  mothers 
whom  you  know  to  make  this  dream  a  great  and 
living  reality  in  many  of  the  dark  habitations  of 
the  earth?  "A  Chinese  child  knows  all  there  is 
to  be  known  about  the  deep  life  truths,  and  knows 
it  without  the  beauty  of  life  being  impressed 
on  him.  I  am  going  to  tell  you  a  dream  I  have. 
Perhaps  it  is  not  necessary  to  speak  of  it,  but 
it  will  show  how  strongly  the  awfulness  of 'con- 
ditions has  forced  certain  truths  on  me.  I  am 
inquiring  among  my  friends,  those  who  would 
know,  what  are  the  best  books  of  sex  knowledge 


The  Child  at  Home  61 

for  men  and  women,  and  especially  the  books  or 
stories  for  children.  I  am  already  beginning 
the  little  nature  stories  with  my  own  boys  and 
intend  to  teach  them  scientifically  all  the  truths 
about  themselves  so  beautifully  and  so  naturally 
and  so  early  that  they  will  never  know  when 
they  weren't  acquainted  with  these  facts,  and 
will  never  have  aught  but  the  deepest  love  for 
the  knowledge  I  give  them.  I  think  I  can  do 
it,  with  plenty  of  study  and  determination. 
Then  as  I  know  Chinese  better,  I  want  to  conduct 
classes  for  mothers  and  for  children,  and  also  to 
get  hold  of  our  school  boys  and  talk  to  them  or 
put  literature  in  their  hands  that  will  make  better 
men  of  them.  If  I  stayed  in  this  country,  I 
should  push  such  knowledge  at  every  turn.  I 
expect  to  keep  a  library  that  I  can  loan  to  Ameri- 
can sailors  and  other  young  men.  I  thoroughly 
believe  that  the  propagation  of  such  information 
will  do  more  to  change  the  life  of  children  and 
the  atmosphere  of  the  Chinese  home  than  any- 
thing else.  For  with  this  knowledge  one  learns 
the  beauty  and  wonder  of  a  God  that  could 
make  such  a  beautiful  human  body.  It  is  won- 
derful to  see  what  Christian  homes  are  doing, 
but  how  much  more  they  could  do  with  knowledge, 
scientific  Christian  knowledge,  in  the  hearts  of 
the  parents!" 

{The  position  of  the  husband  and   father  in  f^fton  of  *• 
most   non-Christian   lands   is   that   of   supreme 
ruler  and  despot  in  his  homey   In  many  casea 


62 


The  Child  in  the  Midst 


An  Egyptian 
father. 


An  African 
father. 


he  has  the  power  of  life  and  death  over  his  chil- 
dren, during  infancy  at  least,  and  where  polygamy 
exists  many  a  wife  has  suddenly  disappeared, 
never  to  be  heard  of  again;  but  no  one  thinks 
of  questioning  the  rights  of  the  husband  in  the 
matter.  His  attitude  toward  the  mothers  of 
his  children  is  the  "sample  copy"  for  his  boys 
to  imitate,  and  right  faithfully  do  they  follow 
his  example. 

In  the  native  quarter  of  Alexandria,  Egypt,  I  saw  a 
little  boy  who  was  very  fond  of  making  mud-pies  in  front 
of  the  house.  One  afternoon  his  mother  stepped  into 
the  doorway  and  called: 

"Come  in,  darling;  don't  get  your  clothes  so  dirty. 
Come  in,  sweet  one."     No  answer  from  the  four-year-old. 

The  mother  stepped  into  the  road,  looking  about  to 
see  that  there  were  no  men  near  to  watch  her,  and  laid  a 
kind  motherly  hand  on  the  child  to  take  him  into  the 
house. 

"Come,  little  one.     I  will  give  you  sweets;  come!" 

Her  husband  at  that  moment  came  around  the  next 
corner,  and  stood  still  to  see  what  would  happen.  The 
child  turned  on  his  mother,  and,  doubling  up  his  little 
dirty  fist,  he  beat  her  right  in  the  face,  and  snarled, 
"Bint  el  kelb!"  (Daughter  of  a  dog),  tearing  himself 
loose. 

The  father  stepped  up,  and,  in  place  of  giving  the  little 
scoundrel  a  thrashing,  he  patted  his  son  on  the  back, 
smiled  upon  him,  and  said:  "Brave  little  fellow!  Thou 
magnificent  little  fellow!"  Proud  of  the  son  who  could 
treat  a  woman  thus!* 

Through  the  jungle  of  Africa  strides  the  man 
carrying  his  pipe  and  a  big  hunting  knife;   after 


*  Missionary  Review,  June,  1912,  Karl  Kiunm,  F.R.G.S, 


The  Child  at  Home  63 

him  comes  his  wife  with  a  baby  slung  at  her  side, 

stooping  under  the  great  pack  on  her  back,  to 

lighten  which  he  will  not  lift  his  little  finger. 

Oh!    it  is  a  sight  to  make  angels  rejoice  when  ^^|^btran*" 

the  grace  of  God  touches  the  heart,  and  manli-  Christianity. 

ness  and  chivalry  are  aroused  in  him  who  had 

all   his   life   seemed   absolutely   callous   to   the 

needs  and  sufferings  of  those  dependent  on  him! 

In  a  Persian  village  where  a  missionary  lady  was 

touring,  a  man  came  to  evening  prayers  and 

slipped  a  note  into  her  hand  that  read,  "Receive 

M.   B.  with  love, — he  is  a  brother."    Several 

years  later  she  again  visited  the  village,   but 

though  she  had  no  opportunity  to  talk  with 

M.  B.  she  saw  something  that  spoke  louder  and 

more  forcibly  than  a  dozen  conversations  would 

have  done.    When  he  was  ready  to  go  home 

from  the  meeting  in  the  missionary's  rooms,  he 

said  to  his  wife,  "Give  me  the  child,"  and  took 

the  heavy,  sleeping  boy  out  of  her  arms.    In 

all  her  long  years  of  work  among  Mohammedans 

this  missionary  had  never  seen  a  Mohammedan 

man  do  such  a  thing. 

"A  Japanese  woman  whose  husband  is  a 
Christian,"  writes  Miss  Ransome,  "though  she 
is  as  yet  only  an  inquirer,  said  recently  that 
the  change  for  the  better  had  been  so  marvelous 
in  her  husband  that  she  had  decided  to  try  to 
rear  her  boy  in  such  a  way  that  he  would  eventu- 
ally become  an  evangelist.  She  wanted  others 
to  know  of  the  power  of  Christianity  which  could 


64  The  Child  in  the  Midst 

change  a  quarrelsome,  drinking  man  to  a  kind, 
sober,  industrious  father."  That  boy's  chance 
for  a  happy,  useful  life  was  the  direct  result  of 
what  the  knowledge  of  Christ  had  done  for  his 
father. 

Motherhood.  ^e  ga^g^  vocation  of  motherhood  is  regarded 

almost  entirely  from  a  commercial  or  social 
standpoint  in  non-Christian  lands.  The  free 
woman  who  remains  unmarried  is  wellnigh  an 
impossibility, — she  has  no  chance  for  winning 
respect  or  position  in  this  life,  and,  according  to 
Mohammedan  belief,  has  a  very  inferior  place  in 
heaven.  The  woman  who  marries  and  has  no 
children  needs  one's  sympathy  almost  as  much 
as  does  her  unmarried  sister.  In  many  cases 
she  may  be  divorced  after  a  certain  number  of 
years  if  no  child  has  been  born  to  her,  or  she 
lives  in  dread  of  having  another  wife  brought 
into  the  home,  who  will  make  her  life  miserable 
with  taunts  such  as  Peninnah  heaped  upon 
Hannah  in  days  of  old.  And  there  is  no  hope  that 
her  lord  and  master  will  comfort  her  as  Elkanah 
comforted  Hannah,  offering  her  the  devotion  of 
ten  sons. 

■$^h£LML  But  the  unmarried  woman  and  the  childless 

wife  are  not  alone  in  their  degradation  and 
distress.  Never  can  I  forget  my  feelings  when 
told  of  a  neighbor  in  Persia  who  had  just  given 
birth  to  her  seventh  daughter.  Her  husband  on 
visiting  the  room  crossed  over  to  where  she 
lay  on  her  bed  on  the  floor,  looked  at  her  with 


Mother  and  Child  in  Egypt 


The  Child  at   Home  65 

disgust  and  disapproval,  spat  in  her  face  and 
covered  it  with  a  cloth  to  show  that  she  was  a 
disgraced  wife.  To  be  the  mother  of  sons  is  the 
great  wish  of  a  woman's  heart,  to  have  many 
daughters-in-law  brought  into  the  home  to  serve 
her  and  cower  before  her  tyranny  is  her  fondest 
ambition,  and  when  she  attains  it  her  influence 
is  indeed  great,  and  in  one  respect  at  least  she 
is  queen  of  her  home. 

Is  it  a  mistake  in  this  study  of  child  life  to  f™^™8  of 
pay  so  much  attention  to  the  subjects  of  father- 
hood and  motherhood?  Nowhere  can  we  find 
the  real  remedy  for  the  evils  that  degrade  and 
debase  and  oppress  and  crush  the  sweet  inno- 
cence and  dependence  of  childhood  unless  we 
go  back  of  the  child  to  the  very  foundations  of 
family  life.  Many  great  authorities  in  America 
and  Europe,  as  well  as  those  who  have  labored 
and  studied  in  Oriental  lands,  will  testify  to  the 
truth  of  this  statement.  Rev.  J.  Sadler  of 
Amoy  says,  "You  would  be  profoundly  impressed 
if  you  could  realize  how  the  strength  of  heathen- 
ism is  in  the  women.  From  earliest  years  they 
teach  their  children  concerning  demons,  and  to 
be  early  eager  as  to  inheritance,  and  thus  inspire 
selfish  and  quarrelsome  ideas  leading  to  divisions 
and  life-long  conflicts.  The  importance  of  wom- 
en's work  cannot  be  estimated.  The  destiny  of 
the  country  is  largely  in  their  hands."  * 

• 

*  Missionary  Review  of  the  World,  Oct.,  1911. 


66 


The  Child  in  the  Midst 


Training 
Christian 
wivea  and 
mothers. 


This  is  one  side  of  the  picture.  The  other  is 
equally  true.  Dr.  Daniel  McGilvary,  for  half  a 
century  a  missionary  among  the  Siamese  and 
Lao,  tells  of  the  wonderful  result  of  a  school  for 
girls  that  provides  Christian  wives  and  mothers. 

Notwithstanding  our  disappointment  in  the  delay  of 
the  school  for  boys,  it  proved  a  wise  arrangement  that 
the  girls'  school  was  started  first.  A  mission  church  is 
sure  to  be  greatly  handicapped  whose  young  men  must 
either  remain  single, — which  they  will  not  do, — or  be 
compelled  to  take  ignorant  non-Christian  wives. . . 
After  marriage  the  almost  universal  custom  of  the  coun- 
try has  been  that  the  husband  lives  with  the  wife's  fam- 
ily. .  .  Where  all  the  atmosphere  of  the  family  is  strongly 
Buddhist,  with  daily  offerings  to  the  spirits  and  gala  days 
at  the  temple,  the  current  would  be  too  strong  for  a 
father,  with  his  secondary  place  in  the  family,  to  with- 
stand. For  a  while  it  was  feared  that  Christian  girls 
would  have  difficulty  in  finding  husbands.  But,  on  the 
contrary,  our  educated  girls  become  not  only  more  intelli- 
gent, but  more  attractive  in  manners,  dress,  and  char- 
acter; and  therefore,  have  been  much  sought  after.  The 
homes  become  Christian  homes,  and  the  children  are 
reared  in  a  Christian  atmosphere.  The  result  is  that,  in- 
stead of  the  wife's  dragging  the  husband  down,  she  gener- 
ally raises  the  husband  up;  and,  as  a  general  rule,  the 
children  early  become  Christians.* 

[     The  Mohammedan  girl  educated  in  a  Christian 

school,  even  though  she  must  marry  and  live 

"^her   life   according   to    Mohammedan   customs, 

/takes  with  her  to  her  father-in-law's  home  new 

Weas  and  customs  that  are  going  far  to  break 


*  Daniel    McGilvary,  "A  Half  Century  among  the  Siamese  and 
Lao."  He  veil. 


The  Child  at  Home  67 

down  the  old  walls  of  prejudice.     Mrs.  C.  M. 
Wherry  of  India  writes: — 

One  of  the  most  interesting  facts  that  has  come  to 
light  during  recent  years  is  this:  We  do  not  know  of  any 
educated  Moslem  girl  who  has  spent  four  or  five  years 
in  our  schools, — and  I  include  those  of  the  British  work- 
ers too, — who  has  ever  been  subjected  to  the  indignity 
of  a  second  wife  brought  into  her  home.  They  seem  to 
have  gained  strength  of  character  and  graces  enough  to 
hold  their  own  against  the  bad  influences  of  Moham- 
medanism. More  and  more  we  hear  of  Moslem  families 
who  practically  adopt  the  Christian  idea  of  marriage, 
that  is,  one  woman  in  the  home:  these  families  frequently 
in  giving  away  their  daughters  take  pledges  from  the 
bridegroom  that  she  is  to  be  the  only  wife,  while  still 
more  encouraging  is  the  fact  that  many  of  these  educated 
girls  absolutely  refuse  to  be  given  in  marriage  unless  their 
parents  insist  on  this  single  wife.* 

A  little  Mohammedan  girl  had  attended  for 
a  few  months  a  small  day  school  on  the  mission 
premises.  Years  afterwards  her  missionary 
teacher  found  her  in  a  village,  and  the  woman 
gathering  her  children  about  her  led  them  in  the 
Lord's  Prayer,  explaining  that  she  and  the 
children  prayed  together  every  day. 

Who  can  foretell  the  influence  that  will  go  Acwjan 
on  down  through  the  years  because  of  one  mother  atta- 
in Syria  who  has  recently  passed  to  her  reward 
at  the- age  of  ninety  years?  She  was  the  mother 
of  eight  children,  two  of  whom  were  ordained 
pastors,  two  licensed  preachers,  one  the  wife  of 
a  pastor,  another  a  helper  in  the  Sidon  Mission- 

*  Mrs.  C.  M.  Wherry  in  "Daylight  in  the  Harem,"  Revell. 


68 


The  Child  in  the  Midst 


Child 
marriage. 


Testimony  of 
an  Egyptian. 


ary  School,  one  is  employed  by  the  Church 
Missionary  Society  in  Nazareth,  and  two  more 
are  teaching  and  preaching  in  the  German 
Orphanage  in  Jerusalem.  Think  what  the  land 
of  our  Saviour's  sojourn  would  have  lost  had 
not  that  one  mother  learned  to  love  and  follow 
Him,  and  to  train  her  children  as  a  Christian 
mother  should. 

Many  chapters  might  easily  be  devoted  to 
the  subjects  of  child  marriage  and  child  widow- 
hood and  their  frightful  effect  on  past,  present, 
and  future  generations.  They  have,  however, 
been  treated  quite  fully  in  recent  mission  study 
books*  and  so  much  authoritative  literature  on 
these  subjects  exists  that  it  does  not  seem  best  to 
dwell  on  them  at  length  in  this  connection. 

(But  every  Christian  mother  should  pause  and 
ask  of  herself  earnestly,  "What  if  it  were  my 
daughter,  my  son,  how  could  I  stand  it?  Would 
I  not  move  heaven  and  earth  to  see  that  some 
remedy  were  found  for  this  monstrous  evil?" 
What  if  your  daughter  were  that  widowed 
teacher  in  a  missionary  school  in  China  who 
had  been  married  at  nineteen  to  a  boy  of  twelve, 
and  who  every  morning  after  washing  his  face 
and  combing  his  hair  had  to  see  that  he  started 
off  properly  to  school,  often  crying  and  protesting, 
and  then  turn  to  her  weaving,  in  order  to  earn 
money  for  his  education? 

Are  we  overestimating  the  evil  because  of  our 
Occidental  customs  and  prejudices?    Listen  to 


The  Child  at  Home  69 

the  words  of  an  Egyptian,  translated  and  re- 
printed from  a  Cairo  daily  paper. 

I  am  an  Egyptian,  and  speak  of  that  which  is  customary 
in  my  land;  yet  I  wait  to  be  shown  that  the  Moslems  of 
India,  of  Yemen,  of  Syria,  or  of  Persia  are  in  any  better 
case.  . .  . 

The  first  step  in  our  faulty  marriage  system  is  that  of 
marrying  boys  of  thirteen  to  girls  not  more  than  ten 
years  of  age,  as  is  the  custom.  This  custom  is  like  mak- 
ing a  fire  of  tender  green  branches;  you  benefit  not  by 
its  warmth,  but  you  suffer  much  from  its  smoke.  How 
many  of  us  have  suffered  from  this  cause?  The  excuse 
given  for  it  is  that  it  is  to  preserve  our  youth  from  im- 
purity. But  what  a  feeble  excuse!  Silence  were  better 
than  such.* 

Strange  customs  prevail  in  different  lands  re-  The  betrothed 

°  x  boy  in  Korea. 

garding  betrothal  and  marriage.  Their  effect 
upon  the  life  and  status  of  the  boy  seems  to  be 
peculiarly  marked  in  Korea. 

The  matter  of  becoming  a  full-fledged  man  does  not 
depend  upon  years,  but  is  a  matter  to  be  decided  on  its 
merits  by  the  parents  or  guardians  of  the  subject  in  Land. 
The  badge  of  manhood  is  none  other  than  the  topknot, 
which  is  made  by  combing  all  the  hair  to  the  top  of  the 
head  and  making  it  into  a  coil  about  an  inch  and  a  half  in 
diameter  and  four  or  five  inches  high.  From  the  time 
the  boy's  hair  is  long  enough,  it  is  plaited  into  a  straight 
braid  and  left  hanging  down  his  back.  When  the  time 
comes  for  him  to  be  engaged  to  marry,  his  topknot  is 
put  up,  and  from  that  time  forth  he  is  recognized  as  a 
man.  This  usually  takes  place  between  the  ages  of  ten 
and  twenty,  though  he  is  not  likely  to  be  so  old  as  twenty. 


*  M.  Fadil,  Atbara,  in  Missionary  Review,  Feb.,  1912,  p.  131. 


70  The  Child  in  the  Midst 

As  long  as  a  boy  wears  his  hair  plaited  and  hanging  down 
his  back,  he  is  addressed  in  low  talk.  His  age  has  nothing 
to  do  with  the  form  of  speech,  but  the  style  of  his  hair 
settles  that.  It  sometimes  happens  that  a  very  poor 
family  will  not  be  able  to  contract  a  marriage  for  their 
son,  and  so  we  occasionally  meet  a  man  thirty  years  old 
with  his  hair  still  hanging  down  his  back.  .  .  .  But  the 
boy  who  is  honored  with  the  precious  topknot  is  addressed 
in  middle  or  high  talk,  though  he  may  be  only  eight  or 
ten  years  old.* 

Customs  pre-  a  girl's  hair  receives  special  attention  among 

ceding  marriage.  °  c 

the  Persian  Mohammedans,  and  must  be  banged 
when  she  is  taken  to  the  public  bath  on  the  day 
preceding  her  marriage.  In  one  of  the  islands  of 
the  New  Hebrides  the  struggling  girl  is  held  down 
by  several  old  women  while  her  two  upper  front 
teeth  are  knocked  out  as  a  necessary  preparation 
for  marriage. 

Among  the  Lao,  where  marriage  is  much  more 
honored  and  considered  more  sacred  than  in  many 
other  countries,  the  boys  are  freer  to  do  their 
courting  in  person,  and  both  boys  and  girls 
have  far  more  voice  in  the  selection  of  a  life 
partner  than  in  countries  where  women  live  in 
seclusion  and  where  polygamy  abounds, 
o^mo^whood  Through  long  years  there  has  run  in  my  ears 
the  brief  story  of  a  Christian  servant  in  one  of 
ti:e  missionary  homes  in  Persia.  "I  was  married 
at  twelve  years  and  had  a  baby  when  I  was 
thirteen,  and,  oh!  how  glad  I  was  when  it  died!" 

*  Robert  Moose,  "Village  Life  in  Korea."       Pub.  House  of  M.  E. 
Ch.  Soc. 


The  Child   at  Home  71 

Glad?    Of  course  she  was  glad.    What  child  of 
thirteen  would  want  the  burden  of  motherhood? 

Who  of  us  who  has  witnessed  the  agonies  of 
the  little  dying  child-mother  can  ever  for  a 
moment  think  with  carelessness  or  indifference 
of  the  awful  custom  of  child  marriage? 

"A  girl  of  fifteen  was  dying/'  writes  a  friend  Adyingchiid- 
from  India.  "Her  husband,  a  man  of  fifty  or 
more,  is  a  man  of  good  position  and  considerable 
means.  The  girl  lay  in  a  bare  room  with  noth- 
ing but  an  unbaked  earthenware  vessel  near 
her.  Her  second  baby  had  been  born  a  few  days 
or  weeks  before  and  something  was  wrong. . . .  But 
she  was  a  purdah  woman  and  could  not  see  the 
doctor.  He  had  asked  a  few  questions  from 
outside  and  had  diagnosed  the  illness  as  tubercu- 
losis, was  treating  it  as  such, — and  had  given  it 
as  his  opinion  that  she  would  die.  Our  pastor's 
wife,  dear  Mrs.  Roy,  had  somehow  gone  to  see 
her.  Even  her  non-professional  eye  saw  that  a 
mistake  had  been  made,  and  she  tried  to  persuade 
the  mother  to  send  for  a  woman  doctor.  'What 
was  the  use?    She  was  doing  to  die.' 

"Mrs.  Roy  expostulated  indignantly  with  the 
mother  for  having  married  this  child  of  twelve 
to  a  grown-up  man,  just  for  money.  The  poor 
child  seemed  so  sad.  Mrs.  Roy  told  her  of  the 
Christian's  hope  and  a  Saviour's  love.  The  child 
listened  with  the  tears  running  down  her  face. 
Then  she  asked,  'May  I  touch  you?'  (Being 
a  mother  of  a  few  days  she  was  still  unclean  and 


72  The  Child  in  the  Midst 

no  one  would  touch  her).    So  Mrs.  Roy  went 

to  her  and  held  her  hands  and  stroked  her  face 

and  hair  and  tried  to  give  her  comfort  for  the 

journey  for  which  she  was  so  little  prepared. 

Thus    is    the  'hope  of  India'  MURDERED  by 

custom  and  carelessness  and  greed.    Oh,  India  is 

horrible!" 

froamStindia  From  the  Missionary    Review    of   the    World 

chi!d-widonw-ge:   (August,  1911)  we  quote  the  following  statistics, 

hood.  each  word  and  figure  of  which  cries  out  to  us 

Christian   women,  "How   long,    oh,   how  long, 

shall  these  things  be?" 

The  figures  are  appalling  in  respect  of  child-marriages. 
The  census  of  1901  showed  121,500  married  boys  and 
243,500  married  girls,  whose  age  was  under  five:  760,000 
boys  and  2,030,000  girls  between  the  ages  of  five  and  ten; 
2,540,000  and  6,586,000  between  ten  and  fifteen.  Of  these, 
all  except  a  certain  number  of  girls  under  the  last  class 
were  married  before  they  were  able  to  realize  what  mar- 
riage is.  The  most  deplorable  result  of  such  marriages 
is  seen  in  the  number  of  widowed  children;  6,000  widow- 
ers and  96,000  widows  were  between  five  and  ten ;  113,000 
widowers  and  276,000  widows  between  ten  and  fifteen. 

The  homes  of         The   homes   of   the   world   need   nothing   so 

Ihe  world  need  .  ^r     . 

Christ.  much  as  the  presence  and  blessing  of  the  Christ 

who  brought  cheer  to  the  home  in  Cana,  comfort 
to  the  widow's  home  at  Nain,  resurrection  and 
life  to  the  home  at  Bethany,  vision  to  the  home 
in  Emmaus.  How  are  we  to  help  to  make  it  pos- 
sible that  fathers,  mothers,  and  children  in  homes 
where  He  is  not  known  should  hear  Him  as  He 
stands  at  the  door  and  knocks,  and  shall  open 


The  Child  at  Home  73 


to  Him  that  He  may  sup  with  them  and  they  with  ^ringfng  °ds 
Him?    There  are  at  least  three  practical  methods  £omes.to  necdy 
by  which  Christian  women  may  help  to  bring 
about  this  result. 

First:  Through  Christian  schools  which  take 
children  and  youth  in  their  impressionable  years 
and  train  them  to  be  the  Christian  fathers  and 
mothers  of  the  future.  We  have  briefly  alluded 
to  this  method  and  shall  speak  of  it  more  at 
length  in  a  later  chapter. 

Second:  In  Zenana  work  and  other  forms  of 
visiting  in  the  homes,  in  crowded  cities,  and 
isolated  villages,  taking  to  each  individual  home 
the  story  of  the  Christ  who  gathered  the  little 
ones  in  His  arms,  and  the  practical,  homely 
lessons  of  efforts  that  Christian  civilization  is 
making  in  behalf  of  home  life. 

Third:  Through  the  great  object  lesson,  the 
missionary  home. 

Never  again  let  it  be  asked  in  church  or  mis- 
sionary society  of  a  y6ung  woman  starting  for 
the  foreign  field,  "Are  you  going  out  as  a  mis- 
sionary, or  only  as  a  missionary's  wife?"  At  a 
conference  for  outgoing  missionaries,a  beautiful, 
talented  college  graduate,  leader  in  many  activi- 
ties and  full  of  capacity  and  consecration,  said 
to  a  returned  missionary, — "I  am  to  be  married, 
and  have  listened  and  listened  at  this  conference 
to  know  what  particular  work  is  waiting  for  me, 
but  there  has  been  nothing  for  me  as  yet."  When 
it  was  pointed  out  to  her  that  by  means  of  her 


homes. 


74  The  Child  in  the  Midst 

paramount  duties  and  obligations  as  wife  and 
mother  in  a  missionary  home  she  would  have  an 
opportunity  of  living  the  missionary  message 
such  as  few  of  her  fellow  missionaries  might 
have,  her  beautiful  face  lighted  up  with  a  look 
that  illumined  it.  The  making  of  a  missionary 
home  was  a  vocation  indeed  to  call  forth  all  the 
highest  powers  of  her  consecrated  womanhood, 
on  miifonlry06  Mr-  E-  A-  Lawrence  has  stated  so  clearly  the 
possibilities  and  opportunities  of  the  missionary 
home  that  he  is  worth  quoting  at  length. 

There  is  an  element  of  missionary  life  which  is  seldom 
presented,  yet  most  important.  It  is  the  mission  home. 
...  It  underlies  the  whole  of  the  work,  and  discloses 
the  ideal  of  Protestant  missions  more  clearly  than  any 
other  point.  .  .  . 

The  first  thing  the  Protestant  missionary  does  among 
the  heathen  is  to  establish  a  home.  He  approaches  them 
not  as  a  priest,  not  simply  as  a  man,  but  as  the  head  of  a 
family,  presenting  Christianity  quite  as  much  in  its  social 
as  in  its  individual  characteristics.  This  Christian  home 
is  to  be  the  transforming  centre  of  a  new  community. 
Into  the  midst  of  pagan  masses,  where  society  is  coagu- 
lated rather  than  organized,  where  homes  are  degraded 
by  parental  tyranny,  marital  multiplicity,  and  female 
bondage,  he  brings  the  leaven  of  a  redeemed  family, 
which  is  to  be  the  nucleus  of  a  redeemed  society.  ...  It 
is  on  this  mission  home  that  everything  else  is  founded — 
the  school,  the  college,  the  kingdom  itself.  .  .  . 

When  they  are  at  their  homes,  this  new  institution, 
with  its  monogamy,  its  equality  of  man  and  woman,  its 
sympathy  between  child  and  parent,  its  co-operative 
spirit  of  industry,  its  intelligence,  its  recreation,  its 
worship,  is  at  once  a  new  revelation  and  a  striking  object- 


The  Child   at  Home  75 

lesson  of  the  meaning  and  possibility  of  family  life. 
Whether  they  come  to  his  church  and  school  or  not,  the 
natives  seem  always  ready  to  visit  the  missionary's  home, 
and  to  remain  there  so  long,  a'  1  to  conduct  themselves  so 
familiarly,  that  it  sometimes  becomes  necessary  to  teach 
them  by  object-lesson  another  feature  of  the  Christian 
home — its  privacy.  .  .  . 

If  the  family  in  its  very  existence  is  an  important 
missionaiy  agent,  having  a  distinct  work  to  do,  not  only 
for  its  own  members,  but  for  the  natives,  .  .  .  then  there 
must  be  a  distinct  acceptance  of  this  office  by  its  members, 
and  it  must  play  its  part  in  the  outreaching  work  of  the 
missionary.  The  natives  must  be  brought  in  contact 
with  this  domestic  sphere.  The  walls  of  the  home  should 
be  at  least  translucent,  that  its  light  may  continually 
shine  through  to  them;  its  doors  should  be  often  open, 
its  table  often  spread  for  them;  a  distinct  social  as  well 
as  Christian  fellowship  should  be  cultivated.* 

"Given   to   Hospitality"   might   be   the   true  At  the  mission- 
«•      ,  -  .  ary s  table- 

epitaph  on  the  headstone  of  most  missionary- 
wives,  and  untold  lessons  in  love  and  deference 
between  husband  and  wife,  obedience  of  chil- 
dren, interesting  and  profitable  table  conversa- 
tion, self-control,  and  courtesy,  are  taught  in 
the  missionary  dining  room  as  they  could  never 
be  taught  in  church  or  school  room. 

"Won't  you  write  an  article   on  the  orderly  JJ^fk'JS}" 
management  of  a  home  for  the  paper  published 
by    the    mission?"    begged  a  young    Christian 
teacher  who  was  spending  her  vacation  week  as 
a  guest  in  the  missionary  home.    "The  work  of 


*  E.  A.  Lawrence,  "Modern  Missions  in  the  East,"  Chap.  viii. 
Harper's. 


76 


The  Child  in  the  Midst 


Learning  to 
cook. 


The  baby  who 
made  her 
smile. 


each  servant  and  person  in  this  house  is  arranged 
for  every  day,  and  everything  goes  on  quietly 
and  regularly.  Our  women  have  no  plan  for 
their  day's  work,  and  I  wish  they  might  know 
how  you  do  it." 

"I  was  taking  dinner  at  the  home  of  Mr.  C," 
said  a  native  pastor,  "and  his  little  boy  cried 
for  some  more  of  the  food  he  liked.  Instead  of 
giving  it  to  him,  his  mother  actually  sent  him 
away  from  the  table  to  stay  until  he  could  be 
pleasant!  I  never  heard  of  such  a  thing,  but  I 
went  home  and  told  my  family  about  it." 

Mrs.  J.  C.  Worley  of  Matsuyama,  Japan, 
writes:  "One  woman  whom  Mr.  Worley  bap- 
tized a  year  ago  walked  thirty-five  miles  over 
the  mountains  and  carried  a  baby  on  her  back 
to  get  to  us  so  she  could  learn  foreign  cooking  in 
a  week.  I  could  not  do  too  much  after  she  had 
made  such  an  effort.  She  came  over  every  morn- 
ing into  our  kitchen,  and  we  proceeded  to  cook; 
she  with  paper  and  pencil  in  hand  and  watching 
with  both  eyes.  I  am  wondering  what  I  shall 
be  expected  to  eat  next  time  we  go  there.  I 
taught  her  some  new  songs  for  the  Sunday 
School  she  and  her  husband  hold  in  their  little 
mountain  village.  I  just  wanted  to  fill  her  up 
with  good  thoughts  and  helps  to  take  home,  as 
she  had  made  such  an  effort  to  get  here."  * 

Even  the  little  missionary  children  may  have 
their  unconscious  share  in  kindling  a  new  light 

*  The  Continent,  April  17,  1913.  ,, 


The  Child  at  Home  77 

that  shall  shine  in  palace  and  hovel,  and  be  re- 
flected in  the  faces  of  parents  and  children  who 
have  long  since  lost  the  radiant  look  they  were 
meant  to  wear.  A  woman  of  high  position  was 
making  a  very  formal  call  in  the  missionary 
home,  accompanied  by  many  retainers.  Every 
effort  was  made  by  the  ladies  of  the  station  to 
entertain  her  fittingly  and  to  bring  some  gleam 
of  interest  to  the  weary,  hopeless  face.  The 
piano,  beautiful  pictures,  the  wonderful  writing 
machine  (typewriter),  dainty  refreshments, — all 
were  acknowledged  courteously,  but  neither 
interest  nor  heart  was  touched.  At  last  in  des- 
peration the  tiny  baby  in  her  dainty,  long  dress 
was  brought  out  from  the  bedroom,  and,  as  the 
visitor's  arms  were  stretched  out  eagerly  for  the 
cunning  form,  so  different  from  any  baby  she 
had  ever  seen,  the  little  face  looked  up  into  the 
sad,  wondering  eyes,  and  a  beautiful  smile  crept 
into  the  baby  eyes  and  hovered  about  the  rose- 
bud mouth.  "Oh,  see,"  whispered  the  servants 
in  eager  watchfulness,  "our  lady  is  smiling, — 
smiling  for  the  first  time  since  her  brother  died. 
God  bless  the  little  baby  who  made  her  smile!" 

Ah  yes!  God  bless  the  missionary  babies,  and 
the  missionary  fathers  and  mothers,  and  every 
one  of  the  men  and  women  whose  hearts  glow 
with  the  love  of  the  great  Father  whose  supreme 
will  it  is  that  "not  one  of  these  little  ones  should 
perish!" 


78  The  Child  in  the  Midst 

QUOTATIONS— CHAPTER  II. 
CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  HOME 

Christianity  will  call  into  existence  a  sympathy  between 
parents  and  children  hitherto  unknown,  and  one  of  the 
greatest  needs  of  the  Chinese  home.  It  will  teach  par- 
ents to  govern  their  children,  an  accomplishment  which 
in  four  millenniums  they  have  never  made  an  approach  to 
acquiring.  This  it  will  do,  not  as  at  present  by  the  mere 
iterative  insistence  upon  the  duty  of  subjection  to  par- 
ents, but  by  showing  parents  how  first  to  govern  them- 
selves, teaching  them  the  completion  of  the  first  relations 
by  the  addition  of  that  chiefest  one  hitherto  unknown, 
expressed  in  the  words  Our  Father.  It  will  redeem 
many  years  during  the  first  decade  of  childhood,  of  what 
is  now  a  mere  animal  existence,  filling  it  with  fruitfulness 
for  a  future  intellectual  and  spiritual  harvest. 

It  will  show  Chinese  parents  how  to  train  as  well  as 
how  to  govern  their  children — a  divine  art  of  which  they 
have  at  present  no  more  conception  than  of  the  chem- 
istry of  soils.  (Dr.  Arthur  H.  Smith,  "Village  Life  in 
China."     Revell.) 

MOTHERS'  MEETINGS 

I  have  been  much  interested  in  our  Mothers'  Meetings 
this  winter.  They  meet  at  our  house  twice  a  month,  and 
we  have  been  trying  to  have  some  very  practical  talks 
which  shall  help  them  to  be  better  mothers  and  women. 
The  need  for  such  talks  is  very  great,  and  I  wonder  more 
and  more  that  so  many  children  epcape  physical  and  moral 
wreck.  Our  more  intelligent  women  realize  their  need 
for  instruction  and  help,  and  are  very  grateful  for  the 
opportunities  given  them  by  these  meetings,  but  a  large 
number  come  only  out  of  curiosity.  Some  of  the  young 
women  say,  "You  ought  to  have  these  <neetings  for  our 
mothers-in-law  instead  of  for  us.     They  govern  the  house 


The  Child  at  Home  79 

and  our  children.  We  would  like  to  try  these  methods. 
We  know  they  are  right,  but  we  are  not  allowed  our  way." 
But  I  know  it  is  hopeless  to  do  anything  with  the  grand- 
mothers, and  I  believe  that  at  least  these  young  women 
will  learn  enough  to  keep  their  hands  off  when  their 
turn  comes  to  be  mothers-in-law!  It's  a  long  look  ahead, 
but  well  worth  while  to  plan  for  the  future  generation, 
even  though  we  cannot  do  all  we  long  to  for  the  present 
one.     (Mrs.  Henry  Riggs,  Harpoot,  Turkey.) 


A  TRANSFORMED  HOME 

In  a  small  village  near  Hoi-How  lived  Sitli  Nin,  a  poor 
woman,  worn  out  by  a  life  of  hard  work,  bitter  poverty, 
and  sorrow.  Her  husband  had  become  a  victim  of  the 
opium  habit,  and  squandered  what  little  property  she 
had.  When  her  eldest  boy  was  eight  years  old,  the 
inhuman  father,  in  order  to  gratify  his  cravings,  sold 
him  to  a  Hong  Kong  boatman,  and  the  mother  never 
heard  from  him  since.  Eight  times  she  had  attempted 
suicide,  three  times  by  drowning,  three  times  by  hanging, 
and  twice  by  taking  opium;  but  in  the  latter  case  she 
had  failed  to  take  enough,  and  the  other  times  love  for 
her  children  restrained  her  at  the  last  moment.  By  some 
chance  the  ladies  of  our  mission  found  her.  Her  husband 
was  persuaded  to  take  the  opium  cure  at  the  hospital. 
.  .  .  While  he  was  in  the  hospital,  she  attended  the  ser- 
vices at  the  mission,  and  was  genuinely  converted.  Her 
husband  was  cured,  and  they  went  home  rejoicing  in 
their  new-found  happiness.  (Josephine  P.  Osmond, 
"Home  Life  in  Hainan,"  leaflet  of  Women's  Foreign 
Missionary  Society  of  the  Presbyterian  Church.) 

CHILD  MARRIAGE,  INDIA 

Sir  W.  W.  Hunter  says,  "In  Bengal,  out  of  every 
thousand  girls  between  five  and  nine  years  of  age,  two 


80  The  Child  in  the  Midst 

hundred  and  seventy-one  are  married.  More  than  ten 
boys  in  every  thousand  between  five  and  ten  years  old 
are  bridegrooms;  while  of  girls,  twenty-eight  in  one  hun- 
dred are  wives  or  widows  at  an  age  when,  if  they  were 
in  Europe,  they  would  be  in  the  nursery  or  infant  school" 

In  England,  out  of  every  hundred  females  of  twenty 
years  of  age  and  upwards,  25.80  are  single,  60.60  are 
married  and  13.60  widows. 

"A  Brahmin  of  Bengal  gave  away  his  six  aunts,  eight 
sisters,  and  four  daughters  in  a  batch  of  altogether  eight- 
een, in  marriage  to  one  person — a  boy  less  than  ten  years 
old.  The  brides  of  three  generations  were  in  age  from 
about  fifty  years  to  three  months  at  the  lowest.  The 
baby  bride  was  brought  to  the  ceremony  on  a  brass 
plate.     (Quoted  from  Times  of  India.) 

The  origin  and  authority  for  early  marriage  are  worthy 
of  inquiry.  Like  so  many  Hindu  customs,  it  claims  a 
quasi-divine  authority,  and  is  based  on  certain  reasons 
which,  from  the  Hindu  point  of  view,  are  of  great  weight. 
"Reprehensible,"  says  Manu,  "is  the  father  who  gives 
not  his  daughter  in  marriage  at  the  proper  time."  And 
all  commentators  say  the  proper  time  is  before  the  age 
of  puberty.  ...  A  high  legal  authority,  Mr.  Justice 
Moothoswami  Tyer,  recently  said,  "According  to  custom 
now  obtaining,  a  Brahmin  girl  is  bound  to  marry,  for 
fear  of  social  degradation,  before  she  attains  maturity. 
Marriage  is  of  the  nature  of  a  sacrament  which  no  Brahmin 
is  at  liberty  to  neglect  without  forfeiting  his  caste."  .  . . 
Thus  a  religious  or  sacramental  purpose  has  been  opera- 
tive here,  as  in  most  other  departments  of  Hindu  life 
and  thought.  .  .  .  There  has  been  one  strong  incentive 
to  early  marriage,  which  in  the  past  might  be  urged  in 
its  justification.  The  unsettled,  precarious  conditions  of 
life,  from  the  remotest  times  until  the  establishment  of 
British  power,  encouraged  parents  to  have  their  children 
married  as  soon  as  possible.  (Rev^  E.  Storrow,  "Our 
Sisters  in  India."  Revell.) 


A  Little  Goaxese  Bride  in  India 


/ 


The  Child  at  Home  SI 

CHILD-WIVES,  PERSIA 

The  usual  age  for  a  Mohammedan  girl  to  marry  is 
thirteen  or  fourteen,  but  in  many  places  they  marry  as 
early  as  eight.  .  . .  Poor  little  girl  wives!  They  are 
taken  away  from  home  before  they  are  grown  up,  and 
although  they  are  now  married  women  they  cannot  help 
behaving  as  children.  There  was  one  young  wife  of  a 
Government  official  who  received  her  visitors  with  the 
utmost  dignity  and  propriety,  and  then  could  not  resist 
the  temptation  to  pinch  the  old  black  woman  who  was 
handing  the  tea  and  make  her  jump.  .  .  . 

Even  when  the  children  grow  older  their  mothers, 
grown-up  children  themselves,  do  not  know  how  to 
manage  them.  ,  .  .  One  woman  bit  her  little  boy's  hand 
till  it  bled  badly.  He  was  about  seven,  and  had  cried  to 
have  his  best  coat  on  when  he  went  to  see  the  missionary. 
Another  woman  bit  the  cheek  of  a  poor  little  consumptive 
girl  of  eight  or  nine  so  that  there  was  a  great  bruise  and 
the  skin  was  broken'.  She  told  a  neighbor,  with  a  laugh, 
that  she  had  got  angry  with  the  child  because  she  was 
tiresome  about  taking  her  medicine,  which  was  very  nasty. 

There  is  no  command  in  the  Koran  that  girls  should  be 
married  so  young,  but  the  mothers  declare  that  it  was 
the  command  of  Mohammed,  and  certainly  he  himself 
set  the  example  by  marrying  a  girl  of  nine.  .  . . 

The  man  is  absolute  master  in  his  own  house,  and 
unless  his  wife  has  powerful  relations  he  may  do  what  he 
likes  to  her  and  her  children,  and  no  one  will  take  any 
notice.  I  knew  one  woman  whose  husband  treated  her 
like  a  slave.  He  forced  her  not  only  to  do  all  the  work 
of  the  house,  but  the  work  of  the  stable  too,  for  he  was 
well  enough  off  to  keep  a  horse.  He  killed  one  child  in 
her  arms,  and  twice  stole  another  away  from  her,  sending 
it  once  to  a  town  a  week's  journey  off,  and  once  to  an- 
other part  of  the  town.  Finally  he  divorced  her,  without 
giving  any  reason,  and  left  her  ill  and  destitute.  And 
she  had  at  no  time  any  redress.  .  . 


82  The  Child  in  the  Midst 

Little  Bagum,  the  child-wife,  was  deliberately  and 
cruelly  burnt  by  her  husband,  and  was  brought  to  the 
mission  hospital.  There  was  no  hope  of  recovery,  but 
all  was  done  that  was  possible  to  relieve  her  pain  and 
brighten  her  last  days.  She  had  heard  something  of  the 
Gospel  etory  from  a  missionary  who  had  paid  a  visit 
to  her  native  village,  and  she  had  been  so  interested  that 
she  asked  two  Persian  children  to  teach  her  more.  When 
she  was  brought  to  the  hospital  even  the  terrible  pain  she 
was  suffering  did  not  make  her  forget  the  wonderful 
story,  and  she  begged  to  be  told  more  and  more.  And, 
resting  in  the  love  of  Christ  and  trusting  wholly  in  Him 
and  His  salvation,  she  loved  to  sing  of  the  joy  to  which 
He  was  going  to  take  her,  and  kept  begging  for  "Here 
we  suffer  grief  and  pain,"  until  even  the  Mohammedan 
women  would  sit  beside  her  and  sing  the  hymn  that 
comforted  her  so  much. . . 

"I  have  a  foolish  husband,"  said  one  little  girl,     "He 
says  he  will  beat  Jesus  Christ  out  of  me,  but  he  can  only 
beat  my  body,  and  Jesus  Christ  is  in  my  heart,  so  he 
cannot  beat  Him  out." 
(Mrs.  Malcolm,  "Children  of  Persia,"  Oliphant,  Anderson 

&  Ferrier.) 

BIBLE  READING 

THE  IDEAL  HOME 
Psalm  128 

v.  2.  The  busy  father  working  with  joy  for  the  mainte- 
nance of  the  home. 

v.  3.  The  happy,  willing,  successful  mother,  striking  the 
keynote  of  the  home. 

v.  3.  The  vigorous  young  children  growing  up  in  the 
home.  , 

v.  4,  5.  All  this  is  the  token  of  God's  rich  blessing  to  him 
who  puts  God  first,  and  who  is  interested  in  the  growth 
of  God's  kingdom  as  well  as  in  his  own  home. 


The  Child   at  Home  83 

v.  6.    Not  only  as  parents  but  as  grandparents  God's 
blessing  will  be  enjoyed. 

PRAYER 

We  thank  Thee,  O  Lord, 

For  the  sweet  and  silent  years  of  the  Holy  Childhood. 

For  the  light  and  gladness  brought  into  the  world  by 
little  children. 

For  Thy  servants  who,  by  word  and  good  example,  are 
protecting  and  guiding  Thy  lambs  in  the  dark  and  waste 
places. 

For  the  Christian  nurture,  Christian  homes,  and  Chris- 
tian parents,  which  are  the  gifts  of  the  Christ-Child  to 
our  nation;  the  strength  of  its  life  and  the  hope  of  its 
future. 

For  Thine  assurance  that  inasmuch  as  we  have  done  it 
unto  the  least  of  Thy  little  ones,  we  have  done  it  unto 
Thee. 

For  the  growing  interest  and  co-operation  of  the  chil- 
dren of  the  Church  in  the  up-building  of  the  world-wide 
Kingdom. 

May  it  please  Thee — 

To  guard  and  protect  the  innocence  of  children,  and 
by  their  example  to  win  men  and  women  to  a  worthier  life. 

To  bless  family  life,  and  direct  parents  in  their  sacred 
task,  that  Thy  children  may  have  a  fear  and  love  of  Thy 
Holy  Name. 

To  bring  to  the  mothers  of  the  world  the  knowledge 
which  alone  can  sanctify  their  joy  and  soothe  their  sor- 
row. 

(Spirit  of  Missions,  February,  1910.) 

QUESTIONS 

1.  What  is  the  saddest  part  of  the  life  of  a  girl  in  India? 

2.  What  do  you  consider  the  greatest  sorrow  of 
Mohammedan  motherhood?    Of  heathen  motherhood? 

3.  What  methods  can  you  suggest  for  effecting  a  bene- 
ficial change  in  the  home  life  of  the  Chinese? 


84 


The  Child  in  the  Midst 


4.  What  feature  of  home  life  in  Mohammedan  lands 
most  needs  to  be  improved? 

5.  What  effect  would  it  have  on  your  boy  to  be  mar- 
ried at  the  age  of  fourteen? 

6.  If  you  could  make  marriage  laws,  what  would  you 
set  as  the  lowest  marriage  age  for  boys?     For  girls? 

7.  Name  the  missionary  wives  and  mothers  of  your 
acquaintance.  In  what  ways  do  they  serve  and  help  the 
communities  in  which  they  live? 

BIBLIOGRAPHY.     CHAPTERS  I  &  II. 
LEAFLETS 
Home  Life  in  China 
Home  Life  in  Syria 
Home  Life  in  Siam 
Home  Life  in  Persia 
Home  Life  in  Hainan 
Home  Life  in  Korea 
Home  Life  in  Africa 
Home  Life  in  India 
Home  Life  in  Japan 
Child  Life  among  the  Lao 
Other  Children 


Women's  Foreign  Mis- 
sionary Society  of  the 
Presbyterian  Church. 


Being  a  Boy  in  Korea 
Selma  (Beirut) 
A  Faithful  Follower 
Auntie's  Explanation 

Child  Life  in  China 
Story  of  Satabia 

Child  Life  in  Burma 
Foot  Binding  in  China 
Little  Daughters  of  Islam 
Motherhood    in    Heathen 

Lands 
Young  Ladies   here,    Young 

Ladies  there 
Childhood   in   Heathen 

Lands 


Woman's  Board  of  For- 
eign Missions  of  the 
Presbyterian  Church. 

Woman's  Presbyterian 
Board  of  Missions  of 
the  Northwest. 


Woman's  Foreign  Mis- 
sionary Society  of  the 
Methodist  Episcopal 
Church. 


The  Child   at  Home 


85 


Child  Life  in  Turkey  Woman's    Board    of    Mis- 

Chih,  the  little  Chinese  Girl        sions   of   the   Congrega- 
tional Church. 


Sister  May's  Impressions 
Village  of  the  Milky  River 


Woman's  Board  of  For- 
eign Missions  Reformed 
Church  in  America. 


Sorrows  of  Heathen  Mother-     Woman's   Baptist   Foreign 
hood  Missionary  Society. 


CHILDREN'S  MISSIONARY  MAGAZINES 


World  Wide 


Over  Sea  and  Land 

Day  Star 

Lutheran  Boys  and  Girls 


American  Baptist  Publica- 
tion Society,  Ford  Bldg., 
Boston,  Mass. 
Pres.  Bd.  For.  Miss.,  156 
Fifth  Ave.,  New  York 
City. 

Woman's  Bd.  of  For.  Miss. 
Ref.  Ch.  in  Am.,  25  E. 
22d  St.,  N.  Y. 

Lutheran  Board,  1424  Arch 
St.,  Phila. 
Children's  Missionary  Friend    Woman's   For.    Miss.   Soc. 

of  the  M.E.  Church,  581 
Boylston     St.,     Boston, 
Mass. 
Everyland  Everyland  Publishing  Co., 

156    Fifth    Ave.,     New 
York,  N.  Y. 

See  magazines  of  the  Women's  Foreign  Missionary  Boards. 
See  also  Bibliography  for  Chapter  I. 


CHAPTER  III. 

THE  CHILD  AT  PLAY  AND  AT  WORK 

"Boys  and  girls  playing  in  the  streets  thereof." 


Questions  concerning  play  and  work — Two 
great  movements,  Playground  movement  and 
Child  Labor  movement — The  importance  of 
play — Children  at  play  in  Japan — Games  known 
the  world  over* — Children  at  play  in  Africa — in 
the  desert — Why  play  stops  so  early  in  non- 
Christian  lands — Need  of  the  "Spirit  of  Play" 
in  children  and  parents — The  message  of  a  doll — 
Child  labor — Bedouin  and  African  girls  at  work 
— Children  at  work  in  many  lands — Child  slav- 
ery— Rescue  homes  for  slave  children — Defective 
and  dependent  children — Orphans  and  orphan- 
ages— Famine  waifs — Blind,  deaf  and  dumb 
children — Homes  for  untainted  children  of  lepers 
— A  crime  in  the  name  of  civilization — The 
Child  in  the  Midst. 


CHAPTER  III. 

THE  CHILD  AT  PLAY  AND  AT  WORK 
"Boys  and  girls  playing  in  the  streets  thereof." 


What  is  play? 

What  are  the  advantages  and  disadvantages  of  How  would 

°  °  you  answer 

nlaV?  these  questions? 

At  what  age  would  you  wish  your  child  to  stop 
playing? 

What  would  be  the  physical  and  moral  conse- 
quences to  a  child  who  practically  stopped  play- 
ing at  or  before  the  age  of  ten  years? 

At  what  age  would  you  advise  that  a  child 
begin  to  work  for  commercial  profit? 

If  it  is  good  for  the  children  in  whom  you  are 
interested  to  have  time  and  opportunity  for  play, 
how  far  would  the  same  rule  hold  good  for  other 
children  in  America?  For  children  of  other  coun- 
tries? 

Name  the  countries  in  which  defective  and 
dependent  children  may  be  neglected  or  over- 
worked without  danger  to  world-welfare. 

Reversing  the  stereotyped  text-book  arrange- 
ment, we  place  our  questions  at  the  beginning 


90  The  Child  in  the  Midst 

rather  than  at  the  end  of  this  chapter.  Every 
thoughtful  woman  is  begged  to  stop  and  answer 
these  questions, — in  writing,  if  feasible, — as  fully 
and  as  honestly  as  possible,  and  then,  after  care- 
fully studying  the  subject,  to  see  if  her  opinions 
have  altered  in  any  particulars. 

Two  great  Two  of  the  great  movements  that  are  sweep- 

movements.        . 

ing  over  our  land, — the  Playground  move- 
ment and  the  movement  to  create  and  enforce 
proper  laws  concerning  Child  Labor, — are  en- 
grossing the  attention  of  some  of  our  greatest 
and  wisest  men  and  women.  The  abundance 
of  literature  on  these  subjects,  the  time  devoted 
to  them  in  great  conventions  and  in  lesser  gather- 
ings, the  very  opposition  encountered  in  the  ranks 
of  those  who  profit  by  the  exploitation  of  Amer- 
ica's growing  children, — all  go  to  prove  that  they 
belong  to  the  living  issues  of  the  day.  Our 
grandmothers  would  doubtless  have  been  shocked 
beyond  words  to  be  told  that  the  subject  of  their 
children's  play  belonged  to  the  "Child  Prob- 
lems" studied  by  the  country  at  large  through  its 
Juvenile  Commission,  and  had  become  a  matter 
for  legislation  and  financial  appropriation  by  state 
and  municipality!  But  so  it  is,  and  Hygiene 
and  Psychology  and  various  other  learned  sciences 
each  claim  a  voice  in  the  subject  of  the  play  and 
the  work  of  the  nation's  children. 
The  importance       A  few  extracts  from  earnest  writers  and  think- 

of  play 

ers  on  this  subject  will  illustrate  their  view  point. 


The  Child  at  Play  and  at  "Work         91 

All  animals  play.  Play  is  likewise  one  of  the  funda- 
mental instincts  of  the  child.  If  there  are  any  inherent 
rights  of  childhood,  the  right  to  play  must  be  considered  • 
one  of  them.  It  carries  with  it  immeasurable  benefits, 
but  the  exact  results  still  remain  comparatively  uncertain. 
It  is  unquestionable,  however,  that  play  promotes  the 
physical  and  mental  development  of  the  child,  and  that 
it  is  no  mean  factor  in  his  social  and  moral  elevation.  .  . 
The  ancient  attitude  toward  play  was  that  of  toleration 
of  the  ebullient  spirits  of  the  growing  boy.  .  .  The  utili- 
tarian function  of  play  was  undreamed  of.  The  physical 
weakness  of  the  child  and  his  incapacity  for  concentrated 
thought  and  endeavor  saved  to  him  the  enjoyment  of 
play  until  his  parents  could  use  his  services  in  some 
gainful  occupation.  .  .  Play — the  most  enjoyable  right 
of  childhood — was  unduly  curtailed,  and  even  at  the 
present  day  its  value  is  minimized  by  many  who  do  not 
recognize  its  varied  functions.  .  . 

Whatever  be  the  correct  theory  of  play — that  it  is 
practice  in  the  line  of  future  methods  of  conduct,  that  it 
is  simply  the  discharge  of  the  surplus  energy  of  the  young, 
or  that  it  is  for  the  purpose  of  relaxation  and  recreation 
only — whatever  theory  be  adopted,  the  inestimable 
value  of  play  to  the  child  and  to  the  nation  cannot  be 
gainsaid.  Play  is  an  irrepressible  method  of  self-expres- 
sion. .  . 

The  social  and  moral  influences  of  play  produce  indel- 
ible effects  upon  the  child  mind.  .  .  The  recognition  of 
mutual  rights  is  one  of  its  initial  values.  These  rights 
are  but  little  understood  by  the  unthinking  child,  and 
when  brute  force  permits,  are  often  entirely  overthrown 
or  perverted  into  a  mere  toleration  of  privileges.  .  .  On 
the  supervised  playground  a  new  regime  is  put  into  opera- 
tion. .  .  The  growth  of  the  instinct  of  co-operation  is 
perhaps  the  most  valuable  result  of  play.  .  .  Ability  to 
co-operate  spells  ability  to  excel.* 

*  George  B.  Mangold  in  "Child  Problems." 


92 


The  Chile*  m  the  Midst 


onnpiaydam9  I  Miss  Jane  Addams  of  Hull  House,  Chicago, 
speaks  with  no  uncertain  sound  and  with  un- 
,  disputed  authority  on  this  subject. 


This  stupid  experiment  of  organizing  work  and  failing 
o  organize  play  has,  of  course,  brought  about  a  fine 
revenge.  The  love  of  pleasure  will  not  be  denied,  and, 
when  it  has  turned  into  all  sorts  of  malignant  and  vicious 
appetites,  then  we,  the  middle  aged,  grow  quite  dis- 
tracted, and  resort  to  all  sorts  of  restrictive  measures. 
We  even  try  to  dam  up  the  sweet  fountain  itself  because 
we  are  affrighted  by  these  neglected  streams;  but  almost 
worse  than  the  restrictive  measures  is  our  apparent  belief 
V  that  the  city  itself  has  no  obligation  in  the  matter,  an 
assumption  upon  which  the  modern  city  turns  over  to 
commercialism  practically  all  the  provisions  for  public 
recreation.* 


Professor  St. 
John  on  the 
little  girl  and 
her  doll. 


Singling  out  one  type  of  the  play  instinct,  the 
little  girl  and  her  doll,  Professor  St.  John  of 
the  Hartford  School  of  Religious  Pedagogy  says: — 

Altruistic  feeling  had  its  origin  in  motherhood,  and  it 
has  reached  no  greater  heights  of  self-denial  and  service 
than  in  that  same  relationship.  In  playing  with  her  doll 
the  child  is  in  thought  and  feeling  making  that  experience 
her  own.  At  a  very  formative  period  of  her  life  it  gives 
her  much  the  same  training  that  the  race  has  received 
through  the  actual  experience.  .  .  Every  impulse  toward 
loving  care  of  the  doll  should  be  encouraged.  To  the 
child  in  her  play  it  is  a  living  child,  and  hence  the  experi- 
ence provides  the  same  kind  of  emotional  training  that 
would  come  from  the  care  of  a  baby,  without  the  obvious 
disadvantages  to  the  infant. 

Kate  Douglas  Wiggin  says,  "Every  mother  knows  the 

*  Jane  Addams,  "The  Spirit  of  Youth."      Macmillan. 


The  Child  at  Play  and  at  Work         93 

development  of  tenderness  and  motherliness  that  goes  on 
in  her  little  girl  through  the  nursing  and  petting  and 
teaching  and  caring  for  her  doll."  * 

If  we  agree  with  an  axiom  laid  down  in  the 
first  chapter  (p.  7)  of  this  book,  that  one  of  the 
inalienable  rights  of  every  child  is  to  follow  his 
instinct  for  healthful  play,  it  is  now  our  privilege 
and  pleasure  to  watch  the  little  ones  of  many 
lands  with  their  tripping  feet  and  merry  voices 
and  lithe  little  bodies.  We  instinctively  turn 
to  Japan,  "the  paradise  of  children,"  where  annu- 
ally at  the  "Feast  of  Dolls"  the  whole  home 
becomes  a  big  playhouse  for  the  girls  of  the 
family,  and  where  the  "Feast  of  Flags"  is  the 
day  dedicated  to  the  boys  of  the  nation.  We 
certainly  must  stop  long  enough  to  see  what  is 
done  at  these  feasts. 

And  then  there  is  the  feast  most  loved  in  the  whole  Feast  of  Dolls, 
year,  the  Feast  of  Dolls,  when  on  the  third  day  of  the 
third  month  the  great  fire-proof  store-house  gives  forth 
its  treasures  of  dolls, — in  an  old  family,  many  of  them 
hundreds  of  years  old, — and  for  three  days,  with  all  their 
belongings  of  tiny  furnishings,  in  silver,  lacquer,  and 
porcelain,  they  reign  supreme,  arranged  on  red-covered 
shelves  in  the  finest  room  of  the  house.  Most  prom- 
inent among  the  dolls  are  the  effigies  of  the  Emperor  and 
Empress  in  antique  court  costume,  seated  in  dignified 
calm,  each  on  a  lacquered  dais.  Near  them  are  the 
figures  of  the  five  court  musicians  in  their  robes  of  office, 
each  with  his  instrument.  Beside  these  dolls,  which  are 
always  present  and  form  the  central  figures  at  the  feast, 

*  E.  P.  St.  John,  "Child  Nature  and  Child  Nurture."    Pilgrim 
Press. 


94 


The  Child  in  the  Midst 


Feast  of  Flags. 


Playground 
movement  in 
Japan. 


numerous  others,  more  plebeian,  but  more  lovable,  find 
places  on  the  lower  shelves,  and  the  array  of  dolls'  fur- 
nishings which  is  brought  out  on  these  occasions  is  some- 
thing marvelous.  .  . 

As  the  Feast  of  Dolls  is  to  the  girls,  so  is  the  Feast  of 
Flags  to  the  boys, — their  own  special  day,  set  apart  for 
them  out  of  the  whole  year.  It  comes  on  the  fifth  day 
of  the  fifth  month.  .  •  When  the  great  day  at  last  arrives, 
the  feast  within  the  home  is  conducted  in  much  the  same 
way  as  the  Feast  of  Dolls.  There  are  the  same  red- 
covered  shelves,  the  same  offerings  of  food  and  drink; 
but  instead  of  the  placid'  images  of  the  Emperor  and 
Empress  and  the  five  court  musicians,  the  household 
furnishings,  and  toilet  articles,  there  are  effigies  of  the 
heroes  of  history  and  folk-lore.  .  .  Behind  each  figure 
stands  a  flag  with  the  crest  of  the  hero  in  miniature. 
The  food  offered  is  mochi  wrapped  in  oak  leaves,  because 
the  oak  is  among  trees  what  the  carp  is  among  fishes,  the 
emblem  of  strength  and  endurance.  The  flower  of  the 
day  is  the  iris  or  flag,  because  of  its  sword-shaped  leaves, — 
hence  the  name,  Shobu  Matsuri,  feast  of  iris  or  flag.* 

It  is  a  matter  for  heartfelt  rejoicing  that  the 
Japanese  Government  has  seized  upon  the  idea 
of  the  Playground  Movement  as  one  of  the  really 
essential  activities  of  some  of  the  great  Christian 
nations,  and  is  introducing  playgrounds  for  the 
benefit  of  Japanese  children,  who  certainly  de- 
serve a  suitable  place  and  opportunity  to  follow 
their  instinct  for  play.  We  hope  that  hammocks 
and  sandpiles  for  babies  will  soon  eliminate  one 
feature  of  the  play  hour  which  is  described  by 
many  missionaries  and  tourists. 


♦Alice  Mabel  Bacon,  "Japanese  Girls  and  Women."    Houghton 
Mifflin  &  Co. 


The  Child  at  Play  and  at  "Work         95 


"We  have  such  hosts  of  children  here  in 
Tokyo,"  writes  Mrs.  J.  K  McCauley.  "We 
go  out  and  see  boys  on  high  stilts,  with  babies  on 
their  backs,  and  we  tremble  lest  they  fall  and  drop 
the  baby;  but  I  have  never  heard  of  one  who 
did;  and  we  see  girls,  jumping  the  rope  with 
babies  on  their  backs,  and  playing  battledore 
and  shuttlecock,  dodging,  hopping,  stooping,  and 
the  wee  baby's  head  bobbing  up  and  down, 
laughing,  and  sometimes  crying;  but  the  playing 
gOes  on,  winter,  summer,  no  matter  how  cold, 
unless  raining  or  snowing.  The  streets  swarm 
with  children,  with  bright  colored  kimonos, 
bright  eyes,  rosy  cheeks,  and  on  wooden  shoes, 
making  such  a  clatter;  but  seldom  are  they 
noisy  in  their  play,  but  fun-loving  as  any  chil- 
dren in  the  world!"  * 

That  other  lands  than  Japan  are  beginningi0^^8^  0 
to  be  aroused  on  the  subject  of  Child  Play  byiplay 
America's  example  is  proved  by  the  fact  that  in 
April,  1913,  letters  were  received  by  the  Play- 
ground and  Recreation  Association  of  America 
from  Persia,  Russia,  China,  and  Uruguay  regard- 
ing recreation  in  those  countries.  The  sugges- 
tion is  made  that  perhaps  as  Rome  gave  to  the 
world  law,  and  Greece  gave  art,  so  America  may 
contribute  play  as  her  share  towards  the  world's 
progress. 

There  are  some  games  that  seem  to  be  as  in-  ar^know^tho 
stinctive    to    mankind  as  are  the  processes  of  world  over' 

*The  Foreign  Post,  May,  1910. 


96  The  Chile*  in  the  Midst 

eating  and  sleeping.  Kites,  tops,  and  marbles 
appear  at  their  proper  seasons  in  Korea,  India, 
and  Persia,  the  rules  of  "Hop-Scotch,"  "tag," 
"hide  and  seek,"  "crack  the  whip"  seem  to  be 
very  similar  whether  played  by  the  Lao  children 
or  European  immigrant  children  on  an  American 
pavement.  Jack-stones  and  "Fox  and  Gee?e" 
are  popular  among  the  small,  bound-footed  girls 
in  China.  The  rhythmic  movement  and  exciting 
choices  of  "London  Bridge"  are  recognized  in 
the  very  heart  of  Africa  in  a  game  so  prettily 
described  by  Miss  Jean  McKenzie  that  we  long 
to  join  in  the  fun. 

African  A  mother  and  her  children  file  under  the  arms  of  two 

Bridge?"  players.     The  child  caught  is  drawn  aside  for  the  choice 

between  a  cake  of  gourd  seed  or  a  peanut  porridge,  a 
necklace  of  beads  or  a  bow  and  arrow — we  all  know  the 
phantom  bliss  of  such  choices.  The  children  are  caught 
and  ranged  until  there  remains  none  but  the  mother 
and  one  who  is  now  called  "the  only  child."  This  rem- 
nant of  a  once  numerous  family  takes  to  the  bush,  but 
the  mother  sallies  forth  from  time  to  time  and  tosses  a 
handful  of  grass  toward  the  company,  who  ask  her  in 
chorus : 

"How  big  is  the  only  child  now?" 

"The  only  child  creeps,"  says  the  mother. 

"Hay-a-a!"  exclaims  the  astonished  chorus  after  this 
and  all  other  complacent  maternal  announcements. 

"How  old  is  the  only  child  now?" 

"The  only  child  walks." 

"Hay-a-a!" 

To  this  chorus  of  astonished  approval,  the  only  child 
comes  to  be  a  young  girl,  has  a  sweetheart,  is  married, 
and  has  a  baby! 


The  Child  at  Play  and  at  "Work        97 

Having  achieved  so  much  success,  the  only  child  ceases 
to  figure  in  this  drama,  and  the  grandmother  is  plied 
with  questions  about  the  child  of  the  only  child. 

"How  old  is  the  child  of  the  only  child  now?" 

"The  child  of  the  only  child  creeps." 

"Hay-a-a!" 

He  walks,  he  sets  traps,  one  day  he  has  killed  a  little 
antelope,  another  day  he  has  killed  a  big  antelope,  and 
now  he  has  killed  an  elephant! 

Here  surely  is  a  climax.  "Hay-a-a!"  The  chorus 
disintegrates;  one  after  another  comes  to  beg  a  piece  of 
elephant  meat  from  the  child  of  the  only  child,  who 
emerges  from  hiding.  One  after  another  is  refused,  until 
that  one  comes  who  pleases  the  child  of  the  only  child. 
He  gives  her  a  piece  of  elephant  meat  for  a  sign  that  she 
is  his  sweetheart — and  they  are  obliged,  of  course,  to 
run  away.  After  them  the  entire  company  is,  of  course, 
obliged  to  follow. 

Here,  you  see,  is  a  rehearsal  of  life  as  it  is  to  be.  Here 
is  the  dissension,  the  gossip,  the  greed,  the  romance,  and 
the  adventure  of  life.* 

"Kidd  in  his  book  on  'Savage  Childhood'  ifSn. 
describes  the  Bantu  children  of  Africa  as  showing 
great  power  of  imagination  in  their  games.  Be- 
fore the  missionary  they  appear  dull  and  unre- 
sponsive, but  when  no  stranger  is  about  they 
delight  in  playing  missionary,  holding  a  play 
service,  singing  hymns,  and  mimicking  the  padre's 
bad  dialect.  The  insistence  of  the  motor  idea  is 
strong  in  the  native;  he  likes  to  play  games  in- 
volving motor  skill,  is  fond  of  acrobatic  tricks,  of 
mimicking  animals,   and   delights  in   dolls  and 

♦"Other  Children,"  Jean  McKenzie.    Worn.  For.  Miss.  Soc.  Pres. 
Ch. 


children's  play. 


98  The  Child  in  the  Midst 

play  animals.  In  fact,  the  whole  picture  is  that 
of  an  intensely  human  little  animal,  decidedly 
attractive,  and  one  feels  pity  that  it  should  grow 
up  into  an  unattractive  and  troublesome  Kaffir 
problem."  * 
Children  of  the  How  invariably  true  is  the  child's  instinct  for 
imitation,  for  making  his  play  largely  a  "re- 
hearsal of  life  as  it  is  to  be."  The  little  Bedouin 
boys,  each  with  a  pet  locust  harnessed  to  a  bit 
of  string,  enjoy  the  exciting  races  of  their  "fiery 
steeds,"  and  prepare  eagerly  for  the  great  game 
in  which  the  bigger  boys  show  their  budding 
manhood.  A  dweller  in  the  region  of  the  Dead 
Sea  thus  describes  some  of  the  games  of  the 
desert: 

"The  boys  of  the  desert  are  glad  when  the  first 
of  the  month  comes.  For  that  day  their  fathers 
allow  them  to  have  a  horse  each  and  ride  away 
from  their  black  tent  homes  into  the  open  desert, 
their  athletic  field.  A  few  of  the  men,  heroes  of 
the  tribe,  meet  there  with  the  boys  and  act  as 
judges  in  the  horse-racing.  They  divide  the 
boys  in  two  rows,  and  then  select  a  boy  from  each 
side,  and  start  off  this  first  pair  in  their  race  (on 
horseback)  to  the  distant  goal,  a  pole  with  a 
prize  on  it  such  as  eggs,  money,  or  clothes.  The 
one  who  arrives  first  takes  the  prize  off  the  pole 
or  knocks  it  down  with  his  staff.  The  judge 
keeps  the  conqueror  on  one  side,  the  conquered 

*  "On  the  Education  of  Backward    Races,"  E.  W.  Caffin,  Peda- 
gogical Seminary,  Mar.,  1908. 


The  Child  at  Play  and  at  Work 


99 


& 


>M' 


on  the  other.  A  new  prize  is  put  up,  another  pair 
races,  and  so  on  till  all  the  victors  are  on  one  side, 
and  the  poor  defeated  ones  on  the  other. 

"A  sham  battle  takes  place,  the  conquerors 
shooting  the  conquered  with  paper  or  some  harm- 
less shot.  Then  the  beaten  soldiers  are  taken 
captive  and  led  to  their  homes,  while  the  proud 
victors  are  allowed  to  go  to  the  meeting  place  of 
the  men  and  drink  coffee  with  the  heroes  of  their 
tribe." 

All  too  soon  the  games  of  childhood  merge  whv  play  stops 

.  so  early  in 

into  the  stern  realities  of  life,  and,  as  we  watch  non-cfinstian 

lands 

and  listen  and  smile,  we  suddenly  wonder  why 
the  laughter  is  hushed,  why  the  smiling,  girlish 
lips  are  covered  by  a  woman's  thick  veil,  why  the 
little  backs  stoop  beneath  loads  far  too  heavy 
for  them.  Then  from  far  and  near  comes  the 
testimony  of  those  who  have  lived  and  worked 
among  the  children  in  non-Christian  lands. 
The  physical  director  of  a  Y.  M.  C.  A.  says: — 
"  One  of  the  strongest  impressions  made  on  me  in 
China  was  by  the  lack  of  opportunity  which  the 
average  child  has  for  normal  physical  develop- 
ment and  for  the  adequate  expression  of  its  play 
instinct." 

Deaconess  Phelps  of  St.  Hilda's  School  for 
girls  in  Hankow  says:  "When  Chinese  girls 
come  to  our  mission  schools  we  find  it  difficult 
to  teach  them  how  to  play,  and  in  the  case  of 
elder  children  we  often  fail  completely,  because 
from  time  immemorial  the  idea  of  learning  and 


100  The  Child  in  the  Midst 

scholarship  has  been  entirely  inconsistent  with 
fun  and  good  times."  * 

So  great  an  authority  as  Dr.  Arthur  H.  Smith 
says:  "The  outdoor  games  of  Chinese  children 
are  mostly  of  a  tame  and  uninteresting  type. 
Even  in  the  country  Chinese  lads  do  not  appear 
to  take  kindly  to  anything  which  involves  much 
exercise.  Their  jumping  and  climbing  are  of 
the  most  elementary  sort."  ** 

Mrs.  Napier  Malcolm  after  discussing  the  play 
life  of  Persian  children  adds: 

"But  when  all  is  said,  the  games  and  toys  are 
very  few  in  Persia  as  compared  to  those  you  are 
accustomed  to.  No  great  distinction  is  made 
between  children  and  grown-ups,  and  really 
there  is  not  so  much  difference  as  we  find  at 
home.  The  children  are  taught  to  take  life 
very  seriously.  .  .  .  and  they  have  no  time  to 
grow  up  into  proper  men  and  women.  The 
1  result  is  that  we  find  the  children  too  grown-up 
and  the  grown-ups  too  childish."  *** 
Need. of  the  "Little  old  men  and  women"  the  missionary 

Piay."  called  them  in  her  plea  that  to  the  children  of 

India  might  be  brought  the  gift  of  child- 
hood, and  so  we  must  not  be  surprised  that  our 
missionaries  find  the  lesson  of  "how  to  play" 
one  of  the  most  essential  and  one  of  the  most 
difficult  to  teach  in  many  lands.    They  have 

*  Spirit  of  Missions,  Feb.,  1911. 

**  "Village  Life  in  China."     Revell. 

***  "Children  of  Persia."     Oliphant,  Anderson  &  Ferrier. 


The  Child  at  Play  and  at  Wotfc      101 


been  at  it  for  many  years  in  a  quiet,  unpre- 
tentious way,  these  pioneers  of  thought  and 
action.  Now  that  the  whole  American  public  is 
being  aroused  as  never  before  to  the  value  and 
need  of  play  for  all  children,  let  us  see  to  it  that 
all  necessary  facilities  are  in  the  hands  of  our 
missionaries,  and  that  their  numbers  are  suffi- 
ciently reinforced  so  that  the  "Spirit  of  Play" 
may  flit  from  land  to  land  and  bring  smiles  and 
joy  and  health  and  lessons  of  unselfishness  and 
co-operation  to  little  children  who  have  long 
since  forgotten  how  to  play. 

Not  only  because  they  are  children  today,  but  Farenta  ought 

.        .  to  know  low  to 

because  they  will  in  a  few  short  years  become  sHy- 
parents,  must  we  give  the  little  ones  this  oppor- 
tunity. If  the  fathers  and  mothers  of  the  near 
future  know  how  to  value  the  development  of 
the  play  instinct  at  its  true  worth,  there  is  great 
hope  for  their  children.  If  they  can  enter 
into  the  play  spirit  with  their  boys  and  girls, 
there  will  be  a  revolution  in  home  ideals  and 
companionships.  That  the  lesson  is  not  an 
easy  one  to  learn  or  to  teach,  we  are  assured 
by  Elizabeth  Harrison,  who  says,  "How  many 
parents  and  teachers  are  there  who  can  enter 
into  this  world  of  play  and  not  spoil  it?  In 
my  classes  for  mothers  I  have  found  that  one  of 
the  most  difficult  things  I  have  had  to  teach 
many  of  them  has  been  how  to  play  simply  and 
genuinely  as  a  child  will  play." 

But  whether  the  parents  themselves  know  how 


102  The  Child  in  the  Midst 

to  play  or  not,  the  quickest  and  surest  way  into 
their  hearts  is  through  sympathy  with  the  play 
instinct  of  a  little  child.  The  missionary  who 
can  enter  into  even  that  realm  of  the  life  of  a 
child  has  the  wondering  appreciation  of  the 
parent.  A  little  mountain  girl  lay  dangerously 
ill  at  the  girls'  school  in  Urumia,  Persia.  The 
principal,  who  was  tenderly  caring  for  her  in 
her  own  room,  came  to  ask  if  by  any  chance  I 
knew  how  to  get  hold  of  a  dollie  for  the  little 
child,  who  had  seen  such  a  toy  in  the  possession 
of  a  missionary's  child.  Yes,  a  thoughtful  friend 
had  tucked  a  couple  of  dolls  into  one  of  my 
boxes  for  just  such  an  emergency,  and  the  one 
whose  head  had  survived  the  eight  thousand  mile 
journey  was  found  and  sent  to  the  little  girl. 
Such  rapturous  smiles,  such  motherly  hugs  and 
caresses,  such  appreciation  when  her  school- 
mates gave  up  their  recreation  hours  in  order  to 
make  proper  Persian  clothes  to  replace  the  queer 
American  garments!  And  when  the  little  one 
went  to  be  with  Him  who  "gathers  the  lambs 
in  His  arms,"  her  weeping  parents  selected  ac- 
cording to  custom  her  chief  treasure  to  lay  into 
the  casket, — in  this  instance,  the  cheap  little 
American  doll  that  had  travelled  so  far  to  bring 
joy  to  the  heart  of  a  dying  child.  Up  into  the 
rugged  Kurdish  mountain's  the  crude  casket  was 
carried  on  the  back  of  a  sure-footed  horse,  and  at 
every  village  where  there  were  friends  of  the 
family  the  caravan  was  halted  for  a  last  glimpse 


The  Child  at  Play  and  at  Work       103 

of  the  little  face  and  a  wondering  look  at  the 
fascinating  toy.  "How  they  must  have  loved 
her!"  was  the  text  from  which  the  doll  preached 
many  a  sermon  that  day. 

In  order  that  the  "Spirit  of  Play"  may  have  Need  of  pubiio 

•*•  "  "  sentiment  con- 

full  right  of  way,  a  great,  united,  preliminary  ceming  child 
effort  is  needed,  that  the  little  ones  of  all  lands 
may  come  into  their  rightful  heritage.  What 
time,  what  strength,  what  zest  is  there  left  for 
play  when  the  children  have  to  work  and  con- 
tribute toward  the  family  support?  With  shame 
we  confess  that  the  Christian  nations  are  far 
from  guiltless  in  this  matter, — the  blood  of 
thousands  of  their  children  cries  to  God  from 
the  ground.  But,  thank  God,  they  are  aroused, 
and  changes  are  taking  place  with  wonderful 
rapidity,  and  nations  like  China  and  Japan  are 
looking  to  us  as  examples.  Shall  we  fail  them 
in  their  hour  of  crisis,  or  shall  we  lead  and  help 
and  encourage  them  and  other  lands  awaking 
from  age-long  sleep  in  this  matter  of  their  duty 
to  the  children? 

Prominent  among  the  rights  of  the  child  must  be  the 
right  to  abstain  from  the  task  of  earning  money  either 
for  his  own  support  or  to  increase  the  family  income. 
Premature  child  labor  is  an  absolute  evil  and  is  wholly 
without  justification.  .  .  The  enlightened  view  of  today 
refuses  to  regard  the  child  as  a  mere  commercial  asset  of 
the  parent.  On  the  contrary,  the  relation  of  the  two  is 
exactly  reversed.  Until  children  reach  a  certain  age  it  is 
absolutely  necessary  that  they  be  supported  by  their 
parents,  and  society  must  enforce  this  obligation.* 

♦  George  B.  Mangold,  "Child  Problems. " 


104 


The  Child  in  the  Midst 


Bedouin  girls 
at  work. 


The  burden  of 
the  African 
girl. 


"How  hard  the  Bedouin  girls  have  to  work," 
we  read  in  " Topsy-Turvey  Land,"  *  "treated  like 
beasts  of  burden  as  if  they  had  no  souls!  They 
go  barefoot  carrying  heavy  loads  of  wood  or 
skins  of  water,  grind  the  meal  and  make  fresh 
bread  every  morning,  or  spin  the  camel's  hair 
or  goat's  hair  into  one  coarse  garment." 

One  little  Bedouin  girl  said,  "I  tote  my  two 
small  brothers  on  my  back  all  day  long,  and  they 
kill  me  a  thousand  times  with  their  crying." 
Another  said,  "What  do  I  do?  Why,  nothing 
but  work — that's  what  children  are  for."  ** 

The  familiar  Chinese  proverb, — "A  child  of 
six  should  earn  his  own  salt,"  is  an  indication 
of  public  opinion  that  needs  revision. 

On  the  African  girl  the  burden  falls  early  and 
heavily,  while  her  brother,  joining  the  men  in 
their  occupations,  finds  life  much  easier  and  more 
enjoyable  than  she  does. 

"The  girl  follows  her  mother  to  the  plantation 
(distance  one-half  to  one  mile  from  the  village), 
imitating  her  mother  in  carrying  a  basket  on  her 
back,  its  weight  supported  by  a  broad  strap 
going  around  it  and  over  her  forehead.  Some 
burden  is  always  put  into  that  basket,  often  one 
beyond  the  child's  strength,  as  a  jug  of  water. 
The  little  one  staggers  under  it,  leaning  far  for- 
ward to  lessen  the  direct  traction  over  her 
forehead.    With  that  daily  bending  the  child 


*  A.  E.  and  S.  M.  Zwemer.       Revell. 

**  Dr.  Ira  Harris  in  Over  Sea  and  Land,  Dec,  1912. 


The  Child  at  Play  and  at  Work      105 

would  become  deformed,  were  it  not  counter- 
acted by  the  carrying  at  other  times  of  a  log 
of  firewood  or  some  lighter  burden  on  her  head."* 

The  little  coolie  children  of  Hong  Kong  toiling  ShTmany 
up  a  steep  road  under  the  broiling  sun  with  great  land"- 
loads  of  bricks  slung  on  either  end  of  a  bamboo 
pole;  the  thousands  of  Chinese  children  gather- 
ing and  carrying  home  great  loads  of  fuel  and 
manure;  the  Japanese  girls  sitting  closely  on 
their  heels  and  painting  cheap  crockery  for  $1.00  a 
week;  the  little  children  of  a  Japanese  village 
helping  to  support  themselves  by  making  match 
boxes  for  the  sum  of  eight  cents  a  thousand; 
the  mere  babies  picking  tea  leaves  under  the  hot 
sun  in  Bengal;  the  seven  year  old  girls  working 
from  five  in  the  morning  to  six  at  night  in  the 
cotton  and  silk  mills  in  China; — these  and 
countless  others  seem  to  be  calling  to  us  in  the 
name  of  the  Child  of  Bethlehem  to  lighten  in 
some  way  their  heavy  load. 

And,  oh,  what  heroic  efforts  your  missionaries] 
'are  making  to  lessen  the  great  evil,  but  how( 
'powerless  they  seem  in  lands  where  no  law,  no\ 
'custom,  no  religion  gives  the  child  any  rights.-^ 
Once  more  we  turn  to  Mrs.  Napier  Malcolm  for 
a  vivid  word  picture  from  Persia.** 

But  for  the  horrors  of  child  labor  in  the  carpet  trade  we   The  'i"1*5 

.  ■  carpet   weavers 

must  turn  to  the  factories  of  Kirman.  of  Persia. 

*  Rev.  R.  H.  Nassau,  D.D.,  "Home  Life  in  Africa."     Worn.  For. 
Miss.  Soc.  Pros.  Ch. 

**  "Children  of  Persia."   Oliphant,  Anderson  &  Ferrier. 


106  The  Child  in  the  Midst 

These  factories  are  filled  with  children  from  four  years 
old  upward,  underfed,  overworked,  living  a  loveless, 
joyless,  hopeless  life.  The  factories  are  built  without 
windows  lest  the  children's  attention  should  be  distracted, 
and  the  bad  air,  want  of  food,  and  the  constantly  keeping 
in  one  position  produce  rickets  and  deformity  in  nearly 
all.  Of  thirty-eight  children  examined  in  one  factory, 
thirty-six  were  deformed. 

One  of  the  Governors  of  Kirman  forbade  the  employ- 
ment of  children  under  twelve  in  the  factories,  but  the 
order  did  not  last  beyond  his  governorship.  The  same 
Governor  gave  the  order  still  in  force,  which  forbids  the 
employment  of  children  before  dawn  or  after  sunset, 
thus  reducing  their  working  hours  to  an  average  of  twelve 
hours  a  day.  A  recent  Governor  added  to  this  an  order 
limiting  the  Friday  work  to  about  two  and  a  half  hours, 
"from  sunrise  to  full  sunshine,"  so  now  the  children  share 
in  part  the  general  Friday  holiday  of  Mohammedanism. 

One  of  our  medical  missionaries  was  called  to  attend 
the  wife  of  the  owner  of  one  of  these  factories,  and  con- 
sented to  do  so  on  condition  he  made  windows  in  his 
factory  to  allow  the  children  air  and  light.  He  objected 
at  first,  saying  that  it  would  prevent  their  working,  but 
finally  consented,  and  admitted  afterwards  that  the  chil- 
dren did  more  work  with  the  windows  than  they  had  done 
without  them. 

The  factory  owners  are  glad  to  get  the  children,  for 
they  say  children  work  better  than  grown-up  people  at 
carpet-making,  and  of  course  they  expect  less  wages. 
But  how  can  the  parents  allow  their  children  to  five  this 
cruel  life?  You  will  find  the  answer  in  the  Persian  say- 
ing that  "of  every  three  persons  in  Kirman,  four  smoke 
opium."  .  .  .  Over  and  over  again  comes  the  terrible 
story,  the  father  and  mother  smoke  opium;  the  little 
deformed  child  toils  through  the  long  days  to  earn  the 
money  that  buys  it. 


The  Child  at  Play  and  at  "Work       107 

Is  the  picture  sad  enough,  are  the  colors 
gloomy  enough,  are  the  weary  cries  loud  enough 
to  reach  and  touch  every  womanly  heart  in  a 
Christian  land, — every  mother  or  sister  or 
teacher  who  has  ever  loved  or  helped  or  taught 
a  child?  Ah,  but  we  must  go  into  darker  depths 
than  these  if  we  are  to  be  even  ordinarily  intelli- 
gent concerning  child  life  and  its  needs.  What  of 
the  little  slave  children  who  are  stolen  from  their 
homes  "in  darkest  Africa,"  who  are  sold  by  their 
parents  in  China  and  Assam,  who  live  lives  of  un- 
speakable misery  in  Korea,  in  Siam,  in  Turkey, 
Morocco,  and  Arabia?  Paid  child  labor  is  ter- 
rible enough,  but  the  countless  slave  children 
of  the  world  live  under  a  far  more  cruel  system. 

In  his  revelations  concerning  "The  Crime  of 
the  Congo,"  A.  Conan  Doyle  gives  proof  of  the 
atrocious  crimes  perpetrated  on  little  children 
as  well  as  on  men  and  women  by  employees  of 
the  Congo  government.  The  selling,  beating, 
mutilation,  and  murder  of  children  were  proved 
to  be  common  occurrences. 

It  is  said  to  be  difficult  for  even  the  mission- 
aries to  realize  the  awful  extent  of  the  traffic  in 
girls  in  China.  In  famine  times  girls  may  be 
bought  for  a  mere  song,  sometimes  being  peddled 
about  the  streets  in  a  basket  and  sold  like  poul- 
try. In  Siam  the  problem  of  slavery  has  as- 
sumed such  large  proportions  that  the  king 
issued  an  edict  a  few  years  ago  that  thereafter 
all  children  born  of  slaves  should  be  free. 


108 


The  Child  in  the  Midst 


Rescue  Homes 
for  slave  chil- 
dren in  Arabia. 


In  China. 


"To  set  at  liberty  them  that  are  bound"  is 
still  the  work  of  Jehovah's  servants,  and  here  and 
there  throughout  mission  lands  will  be  found 
Rescue  Homes  for  slave  children  where  new  life 
and  hope  and  opportunity  are  given  to  children 
who  have  been  stolen  from  their  homes  or  delib- 
erately sold  into  slavery.  The  rescued-slave 
school  in  Muscat,  Arabia,  was  started  by  the 
Rev.  Peter  Zwemer  for  some  African  slave  boys 
caught  by  Arab  traders,  who  were  in  turn  caught 
by  a  British  consul  whose  servant  saw  the  slave- 
dhow  and  reported  it.  The  rescued  children 
were  turned  over  to  Christian  people,  most  of 
them  being  cared  for  and  trained  for  useful  Chris- 
tian manhood  at  the  Muscat  school. 

The  Spirit  of  Missions  for  June,  1905,  tells 
of  a  woman's  conference  held  at  Shanghai  at 
which  one  of  the  subjects  chosen  for  discussion 
was  "Chinese  Slave  Girls."  A  successful  effort 
was  made  to  enlist  the  co-operation  of  non- 
missionary  ladies,  and  the  result  was  the  opening 
of  a  home  for  slave  children  under  the  direction 
of  a  committee  on  which  the  missionaries  and  the 
foreign  residents  were  represented.  After  four 
years  they  were  able  to  report  the  presence  of 
fifteen  girls,  most  of  them  very  young  and  look- 
ing even  younger  than  they  really  were  because 
stunted  by  harsh  treatment  and  lack  of  sufficient 
food.  Not  a  child  in  the  home  but  had  been 
taken  from  a  life  of  pain  and  cruel  hardship,  and 
none  is  too  wretched  or  maimed  or  low  to  be 


The  Child  at  Play  and  at  "Work 


109 


received.  They  are  taught  to  sew,  to  read  and 
write  in  their  own  language,  and  to  know  and 
love  Christ  who  put  it  into  the  hearts  of  His 
children  to  save  and  help  them. 

If  you  are  tempted  to  query, — Can  a  stunted, 
maimed,  degraded  slave  child  ever  repay  such 
an  outlay  of  effort  and  toil  and  expense? — please 
read  the  following  extract  from  a  letter  from 
Miss  Muir  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Mission 
in  China. 

One  year  ago  last  spring  Dr.  B.  was  called  to  see  a  little 
slave  girl  in  one  of  China's  most  prominent  official's 
families.  She  was  five  years  old.  She  was  caught  nap- 
ping when  she  should  have  been  fanning  one  of  the  young 
ladies  of  the  family.  This  young  lady,  sixteen  years  old, 
a  spoiled  pet,  struck  the  child  over  the  head  and  face, 
leaving  deep  scars,  tied  her  hands  and  feet  together,  and 
threw  scalding  water  upon  her.  When  Dr.  B.  saw  her 
he  persuaded  them  to  let  her  go  to  the  Hospital,  where 
her  feet  and  ail  fingers  except  the  stump  of  her  right 
thumb  had  to  be  amputated.  Then  Dr.  B.  wanted  to 
put  her  into  the  school,  and  so  he  told  this  official  he 
would  have  to  settle  a  certain  amount  of  money  on  her 
for  life  or  he  (Dr.  B.)  would  expose  him  to  the  public 
and  the  foreign  countries  where  he  had  lived.  After  he 
had  tried  in  every  way  to  creep  out  of  it,  Dr.  B.  holding 
fast,  $3000.00  was  settled  upon  the  child  as  long  as  she 
lives,  but  whatever  has  not  been  spent  of  it  at  her  death 
goes  back  to  the  family.  This  is  poor  little  Mary,  who 
is  compelled  to  walk  on  her  knees  the  rest  of  her  life  just 
because  she  was  too  sleepy  to  keep  awake  one  afternoon 
when  only  five  years  old.  But  her  influence  in  the  school 
cannot  be  estimated.  Her  being  there  has  helped  to 
soften  and  make  more  kind  and  thoughtful  every  girl 
from  the  oldest  to  the  youngest.    It  is  beautiful  to  watch 


Result  of 
saving  a  slave- 
child.  _<<- 


110  The  Child  In  the  Midst 

the  little  ones  try  to  carry  her  or  pick  her  up  when  she 
falls.  It  has  been  the  redemption  of  "Pontsi"  (Fattie), 
who  used  to  be  the  mischief  of  the  school:  she  would  not 
study  for  any  teacher,  and  was  the  hopeless  case  of  every 
one.  "Pontsi"  appointed  herself  the  guardian  and  care- 
taker of  Mary  as  soon  as  Mary  came  to  school;  she  is 
Mary's  partner  in  the  line;  she  wheels  Mary  in  her  little 
chair;  helps  her  up  and  down  from  the  bench  in  chapel;  and 
is  always  alert  to  do  the  many  little  helpful  things  where 
Mary  needs  help.  She  has  become  very  studious  and 
good  in  her  classes,  no  more  in  mischief.  But  Mary  has 
such  a  bright,  happy  disposition  that  she  is  a  great  help 
to  herself,  and  many  a  time  will  beat  half  a  dozen  with 
two  good  feet  running  across  the  compound  on  her  knees. 

deeflndlnt  achfi-      ^e  sorted  our  chapter  with  children  at  play; 

dren.  we  found  that  all  too  soon  in  countless  instances 

the  play  must  cease  and  hard  grinding  work 
must  begin;  we  learned  that  in  many  lands  great 
masses  of  little  children  are  in  hopeless  slavery. 
One  other  large  group  of  pathetic  little  ones 
claims  our  attention,  sympathy,  and  help  in 
this  connection, — children  who  know  little  or 
nothing  of  play  and  fun  and  laughter, — for  whom 
no  provision  is  made  in  lands  where  Christ  is 
not  known.  These  are  the  defective  and  de- 
pendent children, — cripples,  deaf  mutes,  the 
blind,  orphans,  famine  waifs,  children  of  lepers. 
Why  is  it  that  until  missionaries  started  to  work 
for  these  classes  of  children,  or  governments 
were  inspired  to  such  efforts  by  the  examples  of 
Christian  governments,  there  was  no  chance  or 
hope  for  the  great  mass  of  defective  and  depend- 
ent children  in  non-Christian  lands?    Why  is  it 


The  Child  at  Play  and  at  Work      111 

that  blind  girls  in  Korea  had  no  other  prospect 
than  that  of  being  sold  to  be  trained  as  sorcer- 
esses, or  that  parents  of  blind  Chinese  girls 
find  a  ready  market  for  them  in  brothels? 
Search  diligently  and  find  out  if  you  can  what 
would  have  become  of  the  famine  waifs  of  India 
and  China,  or  the  massacre  orphans  of  Turkey, 
had  not  Christian  missionaries  considered  their 
need  a  call  to  new  and  more  difficult  service,  and 
had  not  Christians  in  Europe  and  America  heard 
and  answered  the  call  for  more  funds  to  support 
the  new  work. 

The  World  Atlas  of  Christian  Missions,  pub-  statistics. 
lished  in  1911,  gives  the  statistics  for  Africa, 
Asia,  and  the  Pacific  Islands  as  follows: 

Missionary  Orphanages 266 

Inmates 20,303 

Homes  for  Untainted  Children  of  Lepers 21 

Inmates 567 

The  Armenian  massacres  in  1894-96  cast  some  Armenian 
fifty  thousand  children  in  Turkey  without  warn-  phans. 
ing  onto  the  care  of  the  missionaries,  who  had 
to  face  the  alternative  of  letting  these  children 
die  or  drift  hopelessly  into  lives  of  wretchedness 
and  vice,  or  else  of  caring  for  them  in  some 
adequate,  systematic  way.  Many  pages  might 
be  written  to  show  how  Christian  missions  rose 
to  the  occasion,  but  one  instance  must  suffice 
as  an  illustration  of  the  task,  how  it  was  met, 
and  its  consequences.  We  quote  from  a  letter 
written  in  1912  by  Rev.  George  C.  Reynolds, 


112  The  Child  in  the  Midst 

M.  D.,  for  forty-four  years  a  missionary  in  Van, 
Turkey. 

"In  1896  occurred  the  great  massacre,  when 
for  a  week  our  premises  became  the  place  of 
refuge  for  the  Armenians,  of  which  from  10,000 
to  15,000  availed  themselves.  And  then  our 
streets  became  filled  with  helpless  orphans, 
whose  plaintive  cry  for  help  we  tried  to  voice  as 
an  appeal  to  Christian  philanthropy  in  America 
and  Europe.  Thank  God,  the  appeal  brought 
response,  and  we  were  enabled  to  gather  in  a 
few  of  these  helpless  waifs  to  feed  and  shelter 
and  clothe  and  educate  in  books  and  trades. 
For  fifteen  years  this  God-given  work  was  con- 
tinued, and  several  temporary  buildings  were 
erected  for  its  accommodation.  When  our  Ger- 
man friends  withdrew  their  part  of  the  institu- 
tion to  separate  quarters,  promising  sufficient 
orphanage  provision  for  the  province,  the  Amer- 
ican Orphanage  was  allowed  to  pass  into  history; 
but  we  feel  as  we  review  this  history,  that  this 
effort  at  least  was  worth  while.  Nearly  a 
thousand  children  were  rescued  from  the  streets 
to  find  a  loving  Christian  home,  and  the  elevation 
which  it  gave  them  over  the  mass  of  even  well- 
to-do  villagers  from  among  whom  most  of  them 
were  taken  might  almost  make  them  thankful 
for  the  massacre.  Forty-five  of  the  five  hun- 
dred and  seventy-five  boys  have  graduated 
from  our  high  school,  thirty-nine  of  whom  have 
given  some  years  of  their  lives  to  teaching.     A 


The  Merry-go-round  at  an  Arab  Fair 


Little  Manure  Gatherers  in  a  Persian  Mountain  Village 


The  Child  at  Play  and  at  Work      113 


good  number  have  continued  their  studies  in 
higher  institutions  in  this  country  or  abroad. 
Two  have  secured  the  degree  of  M.  D.  in  Amer- 
ica, and  are  engaged  in  successful  practice  of 
their  profession  there,  while  others  are  on  their 
way  to  the  same  goal.  One  has  just  taken  his 
M.  D.  degree  from  Edinburgh  University,  and 
another  is  soon  to  graduate  from  London  Uni- 
versity, while  three  or  four  are  successfully  pur- 
suing university  studies  at  Harvard.  Three 
have  graduated  from  colleges  in  Turkey.  Po- 
litical and  economic  conditions  in  this  land  not 
being  attractive,  many  have  emigrated,  of  whom 
fifty  are  now  in  the  United  States,  and  two  in 
South  America.  Most  of  these  are  fully  making 
good.  This  orphanage  episode  of  my  life  brings 
me  much  of  joy  and  satisfaction." 

Seventeen  years  pass,  and  the  scene  changes. 
Then  it  was  Christian  children,  helpless  and 
starving  because  the  Mohammedans  had  killed 
their  parents.  Now  it  is  Mohammedan  children 
homeless  and  suffering  because  Christian  nations 
have  devastated  their  land  by  war.  Then  and 
now  it  is  the  Christian  missionary  who  sees  the 
need  and  realizes  that  "it  is  not  the  will  of  our 
Father  that  one  of  these  little  ones  should  perish. 
"Some  of  these  children  are  simply  irresistible," 
writes  Professor  Arthur  Reed  Cass  of  the  Inter- 
national College,  Smyrna,  "The  stories  they  tell 
are  sad  indeed.  Hundreds  of  Moslem  babies 
are  being  born  on  transport  ships  and  in  schools 


Mohammedan 
children  in 
need. 


114 


The  Child  in  the  Midst 


The   "Polishing 
Jade  Estab- 
lishment." 


Orphanages 
in  In  "' 


India. 


where  lessons  have  been  suspended  to  make 
room  for  homeless  folk.  Here  is  a  chance  for 
American  Christianity  to  prove  its  recognition 
of  need  regardless  of  lines  of  race  and  creed."  * 

Reports  full  of  thrilling  interest  come  to  hand 
concerning  the  work  of  Christian  orphanages  in 
non-Christian  lands, — institutions  founded  and 
maintained  by  those  who  consider  it  their  privi- 
lege to  act  as  the  human  agents  of  Him  who  is 
the  "Father  of  the  fatherless."  We  are  told 
that  St.  Mary's  Orphanage  maintained  in  Shang- 
hai, China,  by  the  Episcopal  Board  of  Missions 
has  been  dubbed  by  the  Chinese,  "The  Polishing 
Jade  Establishment,"  which  is  a  reference  to 
their  own  classic  teaching  that  as  jade  must  be 
cut  and  polished  to  be  of  value,  so  children  must 
be  taught  and  trained. 

The  plan  of  establishment  of  orphanages  in 
India  under  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Mission 
dates  back  to  1857,  and  is  a  fine  example  of  how 
Christian  missionaries  are  on  the  lookout  for 
suitable  openings  for  work,  and  how  to  them  is 
apt  to  be  granted  the  far  vision  that  labors  for 
the  present  and  future  generations  and  for 
eternity. 

The  orphanage  for  girls  was  first  established  in  the 
city  of  Lucknow,  but  up  to  the  close  of  1860  only  thirteen 
orphans  had  been  received.  Owing  to  the  famine  that 
spread  over  the  land  after  the  great  mutiny,  it  became 


*  The  Congregationalism     lay  8,  1913. 


The  Child  at  Play  and  at  Work      115 

an  easy  matter  to  secure  girls,  and  the  following  year 
the  number  increased  to  forty-one.  .  .  At  the  close  of. 
the  mutiny,  Dr.  Butler  made  application  to  the  govern- 
ment for  a  number  of  girls  to  be  placed  in  the  orphanage, 
to  be  cared  for  by  the  mission.  The  government  was 
very  willing  that  the  children  should  be  thus  provided 
for. . . .  Dr  Butler  says: 

"Upon  reaching  the  city  we  found  that  the  Moham- 
medan officers  connected  with  the  magistrate's  court,  at 
whose  disposal  the  girls  had  been  placed,  had  distributed 
many  of  them  in  houses  of  infamy  throughout  the  city 
to  be  brought  up  to  a  life  of  sin.  This  matter  was  pre- 
sented to  the  governor,  and  the  children  were  ordered 
to  be  immediately  recovered  and  forwarded  to  the  mis- 
sion. They  were  sent  in  large  carts,  each  containing 
twenty  girls.  The  oldest  was  probably  twelve  or  thirteen 
years,  the  youngest  a  mere  babe;  but  three-fourths  of 
them  were  under  eleven  years  of  age.  Each  driver  had 
his  list  for  his  load.  He  lifted  out  the  largest  one  first 
and  laid  her  down,  then  the  rest,  placing  them  around 
her  as  if  building  them  into  a  bee-hive  shape.  Then 
the  heaps  were  counted  and  the  signature  affixed  to  each 
list,  and  the  carts  moved  out. 

"The  children  were  all  untidy,  and  their  countenances 
bore  the  traces  of  the  hunger  through  which  they  had 
passed.  .  .  But  these  were  girls,  and  the  glad  thought 
was  that  they  were  our  own  to  save  and  train  and  elevate. 
We  accepted  them  as  a  trust  from  God.  All  hands  were 
soon  at  work  in  loving  labor  to  change  the  aspect  of 
things.  The  missionary  women  and  their  native  helpers 
before  the  sun  went  down  had  accomplished  a  delightful 
transformation.  Bodies  were  washed,  clean  clothing  put 
on,  and  a  hearty  meal  of  wholesome  food  banished  the 
gloomy  looks  and  brought  forth  the  first  smiles  on  those 
little  faces."  * 

*  Mrs.  J.  T.  Gracoy,  "Bareilly  Orphanage."   Worn.   For.  Miss. 
Soc.  M.  E.  Church. 


Famine  waifs. 


116  The  Child  in  the  Midst 

Not  only  are  orphanages  established,  but  mis- 
sionaries use  many  other  means  to  provide  for 
helpless,  dependent,  or  neglected  children  who 
are  thrown  on  their  care.  After  one  of  India's 
great  famines  the  Rev.  Rockwell  Clancy  of 
Allahabad  formed  a  distributing  station  for 
famine  waifs  and  collected  and  placed  hundreds 
of  them  in  various  schools  and  institutions 
throughout  the  land.  A  new  missionary  to 
China  after  only  a  month's  study  of  the  language 
had  rather  an  interesting  trip  with  his  collection 
of  famine  orphans.     He  writes : — ■ 

"The  trip  to  Nanking,  including  a  ten-mile 
trip  on  the  Presbyterian  motor  boat  to  the  rail- 
road station  and  the  one  hundred  miles  by  rail, 
was  full  of  wonders  to  these  little  country  lads, 
On  the  cars  when  eating  our  slim  lunch,  consist- 
ing of  a  bun  and  a  boiled  egg  for  each  boy,  one 
of  the  boys  who  was  a  little  older  than  most  of 
them  politely  offered  part  of  his  share  to  the 
people  who  were  occupying  the  same  seat  with 
him,  and  this  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  he  had 
been  going  hungry  for  weeks  or  months. 

"After  entering  the  city  wall  at  Nanking  we 
drove  the  seven  miles  to  a  rented  Chinese  house 
where  I  was  living,  which  was  to  serve  as  their 
home  for  the  time  being.  One  of  the  drivers  told 
the  boys  that  we  were  going  to  dig  out  their 
eyes  and  cut  out  their  stomachs.  This  awesome 
news,  coupled  with  a  little  homesickness,  was 
probably  the  cause  of  two  of  them  running  away 


The  Child  at  Play  and  at  Work      117 


the  very  next  day.  We  had  to  send  four  or  five 
to  the  Methodist  hospital  to  be  treated,  and  two 
of  the  older  boys  who  were  allowed  to  go  along 
ran  away.  But  their  places  have  been  filled 
by  three  others,  two  of  whom  I  had  to  leave  in 
the  hospital  at  Hwai  Yuan."  * 

What  provision  is  there  for  the  blind,  the  deaf  a  Persian 

.  Helen 

and  dumb,  the  crippled  children  in  non-Christian  Keller." 
lands?  Would  you  care  to  know  the  number  of 
children  whose  fate  is  like  that  of  the  Moham- 
medan girl  who  was  brought  by  her  grandmother 
to  the  missionary  dispensary  in  Persia?  She 
was  deaf,  dumb,  and  blind,  and  her  grandmother 
pleaded  with  the  lady  physician  to  do  something 
to  cure  her.  The  girl  shrank  in  fright  as  a 
strange  hand  touched  her  and  then  every  tense 
muscle  in  her  body  showed  amazement  and  relief 
when  the  hand  proved  to  be  gentle  and  loving. 
Again  the  grandmother  brought  her,  saying, 
"You  must  find  a  remedy.  There  is  nothing  we 
can  do  with  her.  Must  I  kill  her?"  and  the  mis- 
sionary's heart  was  broken  because  she  could 
not  cure  and  there  was  absolutely  no  institution 
to  which  to  take  the  girl.  Some  years  later  a 
younger  deaf  and  dumb  girl  was  brought  to 
the  dispensary  by  a  woman  whose  face  seemed 
familiar  and  who  turned  out  to  be  the  despairing 
old  grandmother.  "Where  is  the  older  girl?" 
asked    the    doctor.    "Oh,"    exclaimed    the    old 


*  John  Magee  in  Hotchkiss  Record,  Jan.  21,  1913. 


118 


The  Child  in  the  Midst 


Blind  children 
in  India. 


Work  for  the 
deaf. 


woman,  while  the  tears  rained  down  her  face,  "I 
had  to  kill  her.    There  was  nothing  else  to  do!" 

Who  knows  what  there  was  behind  that  wall 
of  blindness  and  deafness, — who  knows  what 
might  have  been  the  result  had  the  Moham- 
medan Helen  Keller  had  her  fair  chance?  Which 
members  of  the  "organized  motherhood  for  the 
children  of  the  world"  will  see  to  it  that  there 
are  means  and  workers  enough  to  give  these 
children  their  inalienable  rights?  The  work  is 
barely  begun,  but  is  full  of  promise. 

"According  to  the  last  census,  the  number  of 
blind  persons  in  the  Indian  Empire  is  600,000. 
Little  was  done  for  them  until  Miss  Asquith, 
superintendent  of  the  school  for  Tamil  girls  in 
Palamcotta,  founded  a  school  for  blind  children 
a  few  years  ago.  Her  success  was  so  great  that 
she  resigned  her  lucrative  position  and  gave  her- 
self and  all  her  time  to  the  care  of  the  blind. 
Now  the  English  Government  will  aid  her  in 
the  erection  of  two  substantial  school  buildings, 
one  for  boys,  the  other  for  girls,  that  she  may  give 
both  a  more  complete  education."  * 

"The  Martha  A.  King  Memorial  School  for  the 
Deaf  has  been  started  as  a  department  of  the 
work  of  the  Woman's  Board  of  Missions  at 
Marsovan.  The  oral  method  is  used,  and  it  is 
the  intention  to  teach  each  pupil  the  language  of 
his  own  home.     The  present  year  the  Greek  de- 


*  Missionary  Review  of  the  World,  Feb.,  1911. 


The  Child  at  Play  and  at  Work      119 

partment  has  been  opened,  an  Armenian  depart- 
ment will  be  opened  in  September,  1911,  and  one 
in  Turkish  as  soon  as  there  is  a  demand  for  it. 

"Children  (both  boys  and  girls)  will  be  re- 
ceived at  from  six  to  eight  years  of  age.  Older 
children  may  be  accepted,  but  it  is  important 
for  the  attainment  of  the  best  results  that  pupils  ♦ 
begin  the  work  within  the  age  limits  named. 
Miss  Philadelpheus,  the  teacher,  has  spent  two 
years  at  the  Clark  School  for  the  Deaf,  North- 
ampton, Mass.,  in  preparation  for  this  work. 
Both  the  home  and  school  life  of  the  children  are 
under  the  most  careful  supervision."  * 

One  in  every  five  hundred  of  China's  vast  Deaf  and  dumb 
population  is  estimated  to  be  deaf  and  dumb.  China. 
The  only  school  in  China  for  such  unfortunates 
is  in  Chef oo  and  was  started  in  1898  as  an  inde- 
pendent work  by  Mrs.  A.  T.  Mills,  for  many  years 
a  member  of  the  Presbyterian  Mission,  which 
heartily  approves  of  the  school,  but  has  no  funds 
with  which  to  support  it.  Boys  and  girls  are 
taught  in  this  school  to  read,  write,  and  speak, 
and  are  given  as  much  elementary  knowledge 
as  is  possible,  while  being  trained  to  useful  occu- 
pations by  wilich  they  may  hope  to  be  self- 
supporting.  Such  constructive  work  for  chil- 
dren who  are  handicapped  is  considered  abso- 
lutely necessary  in  America  and  Europe.  Is 
there  in  your  opinion  any  necessity  for  multiply- 
ing such  agencies  in  non-Christian  lands? 

*  Missionary  Review  of  the  World,  April,  1911. 


120 


The  Child  in  the  Midst 


The  blind 
reader  of 
Amritsar. 


A  leprous 
mother. 


Does  it  pay  to  help  in  Christ's  name  even  one 
of  these  little  ones?  Are  they  worth  helping? 
Which  one  of  us  could  do  the  work  of  the  blind 
reader  of  Amritsar  in  India? 

"A  peculiarly  bright,  happy-looking  girl  of  about 
eighteen,  sitting  down  at  the  beginning  of  the  morning  in 
one  of  our  Amritsar  dispensaries,  with  her  large  Gospel 
of  St.  Matthew,  in  Dr.  Moon's  system  of  raised  characters 
for  the  blind,  open  on  her  knees;  she  can  see  nothing, 
but  her  fingers  move  swiftly  across  the  page,  and  she 
begins  to  read  better  than  some  persons  who  have  the 
use  of  their  eyes!  As  the  morning  goes  on,  all  the  6ick 
who  come  for  medicine  will  listen  with  astonishment  and 
pleasure,  and  she  will  have  opportunities  of  witnessing 
for  Jesus  to  those  who  ask  her  a  reason  for  the  hope  that 
is  in  her.  She  was  once  herself  in  the  darkness  of  Mo- 
hammedanism, and  in  the  Blind  School  found  Christ. 
'She  is  now  a  rejoicing  and  consistent  Christian.  Do 
you  think  that,  as  we  stood  and  watched  her  delight  in 
reading  the  comfortable  words  of  our  Saviour  Christ,  we 
asked  ourselves  if  to  bring  such  to  the  Lord  were  work 
worth  doing?  Rather,  is  it  not  a  service  which  angels 
might  envy?"  * 

A  leprous  mother,  outcast  of  society,  doomed 
to  spend  the  rest  of  her  life  in  a  leper  village 
and  to  drag  out  a  miserable  existence  among  those 
who  are  afflicted  and  suffering  like  herself! 
What,  oh  what,  shall  she  do  with  her  children, 
as  yet  untainted  by  the  frightful  disease,  but  sure 
to  develop  it  if  they  too  go  to  the  leper  village? 
And  yet  who  is  there  in  the  wide  world  to  care  for 
her  little  ones?    Her  husband  is  up  at  the  village, 


*  Barnes,  "Behind  the  Pardah." 


The  Child  at  Play  and  at  "Work      121 

hands  gone,  sightless  eyes,  disfigured  face, — 
he  cannot  help.  No  relatives  or  neighbors  will 
be  bothered  with  the  children  of  the  outcast, 
and  yet  that  mother  heart  beats  with  an  intense, 
despairing  mother  love  as  yours  or  mine  might, — 
with  a  love  that  can  bear  all  suffering  and  even 
slow  death  for  herself  if  only  her  children  are  safe. 
Hark,  a  neighbor  calls  to  her  from  a  safe  dis- 
tance,— "Do  you  know  that  those  foreign  Jesus 
people  have  a  place  where  they  take  the  children 
of  those  who  are  accursed  of  God  like  yourself? 
They  take  them  and  feed  them  and  teach  them 
their  Jesus  religion  and  train  them  to  earn  their 
living."  Oh,  it  is  the  one  word  of  hope  and 
courage,  the  one  ray  of  light  in  utter  darkness, 
and  the  little  children  are  left  on  the  threshold 
of  the  Home  for  Untainted  Children,  and  the 
leper  mother  learns  of  a  Home  where  she  her- 
self may  go  and  where  she  and  her  husband  may 
receive  loving  care  and  unheard-of  comfort,  and 
where  the  years  of  suffering  are  illumined  by  the 
knowledge  of  another  Home  where  she  may 
meet  her  darlings  once  more,  and  "where  the 
inhabitant  shall  not  say,  I  am  sick." 

"Twenty-one  Homes  for  the  untainted  children  un°ta\n8tedr  chii- 
of  leprous  parents  in  which  about  five  hundred  dren  of  leper8' 
boys  and  girls  are  being  brought  up  to  healthy 
and  useful  lives  and  saved  from  adding  to  the 
terrible  total  of  diseased  outcasts,"  *  this  is  the 

*  Missionary   Review  of  the   World,  May,    1911,   John   Jackson, 
FJt.G.S. 


122  The  Child  in  the  Midst 

record  of  the  work  of  Christian  missions  thus  far. 
Compare  with  it  the  record  of  what  in  this  modern 
day  has  been  done  in  the  name  of  an  attempt  at 
civilization  which  leaves  Christianity  entirely  out 
of  account. 
rivflfetiSTbSt  "Wellesley  G.  Bailey  of  Edinburgh,  the  super- 
christianity.  intendent  of  the  Mission  to  Lepers,  has  received 
authoritative  information  concerning  the  terrible 
massacre  of  lepers  by  government  soldiers  which 
was  perpetrated  at  the  city  of  Nanning,  the  re- 
mote capital  of  the  province  Kwang-si  in  south- 
ern China.  The  massacre  was  instituted  under 
the  direct  orders  of  the  governor  general  of  the 
province.  .  .  In  this  case  the  offense  of  his 
cruelty  is  aggravated  by  the  fact  that,  taking 
advantage  of  the  trend  to  modern  ideas  in  China, 
the  vicious  old  general  pretended  to  be  acting  in 
the  interest  of  scientific  hygiene.  The  excuse 
he  has  made  for  the  massacre  is  that  leprosy  is  a 
great  menace  to  humanity  and  the  destruction  of 
those  afflicted  with  it  is  the  surest  way  of  stamp- 
ing out  the  scourge.  .  . 

"The  English  Missionaries  had  been  anxious 
for  some  time  to  build  a  leper  hospital,  but  could 
not  spare  the  energy  for  it  from  their  other  work. 
And  for  a  long  time  the  Catholics  seemed  entirely 
indifferent  to  the  needs  of  lepers.  But  finally, 
there  arrived  in  the  latter  mission  a  very  earnest 
and  sympathetic  priest,  whose  attention  was 
early  attracted  to  the  collection  of  miserable 
hovels  outside  the  city,  where  the  community  of 


The  Child  at  Play  and  at  Wotk      123 

suffering  had  drawn  together  a  larger  group  of 
outcast  lepers.  The  priest  determined  that  some- 
thing must  be  done  for  them.  .  . 

"But  it  appears  that  the  intrusion  of  the  French 
into  the  matter  angered  General  Luk  so  much 
that  he  took  measures  immediately  to  dispose  of 
the  question  in  another  way.  Soldiers  were 
sent  out  to  dig  a  deep  trench  near  by  the  leper 
village,  and  early  on  a  Saturday  morning  soon 
after  a  large  body  of  troops  completely  sur- 
rounded the  lepers'  wretched  huts.  Shouts 
brought  them  out  of  the  door  of  their  hovels,  and 
immediately  the  soldiers  opened  fire,  shooting 
relentlessly  until  the  whole  community — men, 
women  and  children — were  dead  or  helplessly 
wounded.  Then  the  .whole  mass,  many  still 
living,  were  dropped  into  the  trench,  kerosene 
poured  over  them  and  the  pile  set  alight.  The 
victims  at  this  one  point  numbered  fifty-three. 
Of  course  there  was  immense  excitement  in  the 
city,  and  to  defend  himself  the  governor  general 
issued  a  proclamation  urging  that  all  lepers 
should  be  put  out  of  the  way,  and  advising  that 
those  who  did  not  voluntarily  kill  themselves 
should  be  killed  by  their  friends  and  relatives. 
How  many  more  died  in  this  way  is  not  known. 

"Many  crimes  have  been  committed  in  the 
name  of  civilization,  as  of  liberty,  but  perhaps 
never  one  quite  so  monstrous  as  this  in  the  name 
of  'hygiene.'     Certainly  the  incident  illustrates 


124 


The  Child  in  the  Midst 


"The  child  in 
the    midst." 


how  keenly  China  needs  not  civilization  simply, 

but  civilization  based  upon  Christian  religion."  * 

"The  child  in  the  midst,"   playful,   trustful, 

loving,  helpless,  exalted  by  our  Saviour  into  a 

type  to  be  admired  and  copied  if  one  would  enter 

into    the    Kingdom    of    Heaven!    The    Master 

placed  him  in  the  very  midst  of  His  disciples, 

/   where  he  might  find  shelter,  protection,  and  love. 

/     But  today  we  find  the  little  ones,   thousands, 

millions  of  them,  in  the  midst  of  suffering,  neg- 

I     lect,    vice,    crime,   torture,   despair,    danger  to 

{      body  and  soul.     And  ever  and  anon  the  Master's 

y     voice  echoes  in  our  ears,  "Whosoever  shall  receive 

\  one  such  little  one  in  My  name,  receiveth  Me." 


QUOTATIONS 
FEAST  DAY,  ARABIA 

What  Christmas  Day,  with  its  toys  and  sweets  and 
merry-making,  is  to  the  Christian  child,  the  Moslem 
Feast  Day,  at  the  close  of  the  Ramadhan  Fast,  is  to  the 
little  men  and  women  of  Arabia.  At  that  time  every 
child  must  have  a  new  gown  of  some  bright  color.  On 
that  gay  day,  in  the  bazaar,  are  sold  delicious  sweetmeats 
made  only  on  this  one  occasion  in  the  whole  year.  Every 
one  is  happy,  for  the  weary  month  of  fasting  is  at  an  end. 
Friend  meets  friend  with  the  greeting,  "May  your  feast 
be  blessed,"  and  is  answered,  "May  your  day  be  happy." 

Out  on  the  edge  of  the  town,  where  the  houses  end  and 
the  desert  begins,  some  enterprising  Arab,  who  has  "seen 
Bombay,"  has  constructed  the  crudest  and  most  danger- 
ous of  Ferris  Wheels,  and  a  merry-go-round  to  match. 
Here   the   youthful   inhabitants   congregate,   with   their 


*  The  Continent,  March  27,  1913. 


The  Child  at  Play  and  at  "Work      125 

precious  coppers,  eager  for  a  ride  on  these  wonderful 
machines.  There  are  big  boys  and  little  boys  and  middle- 
sized  boys.  There  are  little  girls  with  their  faces  uncov- 
ered, and  a  few  older  ones  with  their  faces  veiled,  but  most 
of  the  larger  girls  must  stay  at  home,  as  it  would  be  a 
shame  for  them  to  appear  in  public.  There  are  the 
proud  sons  of  the  rich  Arab  merchants,  and  the  children 
of  the  wild  Bedouins.  What  better  opportunity  could 
one  have  to  study  the  rising  generation? 

If  a  Westerner,   wearing  a  hat,   passes  through  the 
crowd,  he  is  immediately  followed  by  a  mob  of  impudent, 
mischievous  boys,  calling  out  in  Arabic: 
"The  English,  the  English! 

They  don't  pray! 

Even  the  chickens 

Are  better  than  they!" 

The  Moslems  say  that  the  chickens  are  praying  when 
they  raise  their  heads  before  swallowing  water.  (Letter 
from  E.  T.  Calverley) 

PLAY,  AMONG  THE  LAO 

We  have  110  girls  in  school  this  term,  over  half  of  them 
boarders,  and  they  are  so  gentle  and  tractable  it  is  a 
pleasure  to  work  with  them.  It  is  pitiful  to  see  how  little 
they  know  about  playing.  Their  greatest  pleasure  is 
watching  us  play  tennis.  A  few  evenings  ago  I  heard  an 
unusual  noise  under  my  window,  and,  looking  out,  saw 
a  towel  tied  across  the  walk  between  the  hedges.  On 
either  side  of  this  stood  a  girl  with  a  flat  stick  in  her 
hand,  and  they  were  knocking  across  the  towel  a  bundle 
of  rags  which  they  had  tied  up  in  some  semblance  of  a 
ball.  Later  we  took  them  out,  and  let  each  one  have  a 
few  minute's  real  play  with  real  racquets  and  balls,  and, 
when  I  put  the  racquet  in  a  girl's  hand,  she  would  gasp, 
as  if  to  say,  "Can  this  be  really  true,  or  am  I  dreaming?" 
(Miss  Lucy  Starling  in  Foreign  Post,  May,  1910.) 


126  The  Child  in  the  Midst 

DOLLS,  CENTRAL  AFRICA 

The  first  two  dolls  that  arrived  in  Toro  met  with  a  very 
mixed  welcome;  the  children  howled  and  fled  in  terror, 
but  their  mothers  showed  a  most  profound  admiration 
for  them.  At  first  they  held  the  doll  very  gingerly,  but 
finding  that  nothing  happened  to  either  one  or  the  other, 
and  the  doll  still  smiled  at  them  like  the  Cheshire  cat, 
they  became  great  friends,  and  begged  that  they  might 
borrow  it  for  a  few  days  to  play  with. 

Whether  it  was  the  large  circulation  that  those  two 
dolls  got,  or  the  gradually  increasing  confidence  of  the 
Toro  children  in  the  white  ladies,  the  fact  remains  that 
in  a  few  months  all  childish  prejudice  had  disappeared, 
and  often  a  little  voice  was  heard  asking  for  "a  child 
that  causes  play."  When  this  was  known  in  England, 
over  one  hundred  dolls  were  sent  to  me  from  two  working 
parties.  I  never  saw  such  a  wonderful  doll  show  as  they 
made.  They  were  all  displayed  on  our  verandah,  and  the 
house  was  literally  besieged  with  men,  women,  and  chil- 
dren for  some  days. 

A  bride,  beautifully  dressed  in  white  satin  and  kid  shoes, 
who  even  in  her  wedding  attire  cried  "mamma"  and 
"papa,"  was  sent  to  little  Princess  Ruth,  but  the  report 
reached  me  that  King  Kasagama  had  constituted  himself 
guardian,  and  kept  it  locked  up  in  his  study  for  slack 
moments! 

Apolo,  our  faithful  native  deacon — confirmed  bachelor 
— asked  me  in  secret  if  men  ever  played  with  dolls,  and 
beamed  with  satisfaction  as  he  most  triumphantly  carried 
one  off,  peacefully  sleeping. 

The  others  were  given  out  to  the  little  girls  who  had 
been  most  regular  at  the  school,  and  were  noted  for  having 
come  with  clean  faces  and  bodies. 

When  the  boys  saw  that  the  dolls  were  only  given  to  girls, 
some  borrowed  their  sisters'  garments  to  try  and  appear 
eligible!     I  did  not  know  till  then  they  were  versed  in 


The  Child  at  Play  and  at  Work       127 

such  cunning!  It  was  so  pretty  to  watch  the  joy  and 
even  playfulness  that  those  dolls  brought  into  the  Uvea 
of  so  many  little  ones  who  had  scarcely  known  what  this 
meant  till  then.  Christianity  has  completely  revolu- 
tionized child-life  in  Toro.     * 


SAVING  A  BOY,  CHINA 

Rev.  F.  E.  Lund,  of  Wuhu,  tells  this  incident  in  con- 
nection with  a  visit  to  the  out-station  at  Nanking: 

"On  going  back  to  the  school  about  ten  o'clock  at  night 
I  found  in  a  dark  corner  on  the  street  a  poor  boy,  half 
frozen  to  death.  His  piteous  groaning  attracted  my 
attention.  His  legs  were  already  numbed  and  his  feet 
swollen  and  covered  with  chilblains  which  made  him 
quite  unable  to  move.  He  told  me  he  had  been  driven 
out  from  his  home  a  few  days  ago,  as  his  father  and  younger 
brother  were  on  the  point  of  starvation.  His  mother 
died  last  year  in  the  famine.  I  knew  that  it  was  up  to 
me  to  save  him.  There  was  no  one  else  to  do  it.  The 
cold  night  would  have  finished  him.  So  I  had  him  car- 
ried to  our  school,  where  we  gave  him  a  warm  bath  and 
put  him  into  new  wadded  clothes.  During  the  night  he 
was  in  great  pain  and  delirious,  but  in  the  morning  he 
seemed  hale  and  hearty,  and  proved  to  be  a  most  straight- 
forward and  clever  little  man.  He  is  ten  years  old,  but 
very  small  for  his  age.  It  was  most  interesting  to  see 
how  heartily  our  Chinese  neighbors  endorsed  this  little 
bit  of  charity.  One  gave  me  $2.00  to  help  pay  for  the 
clothes.  Another  brought  two  pairs  of  socks.  Some  one 
sent  a  hat,  and  an  innkeeper  sent  bedding.  If  we  only 
had  a  trade  school  to  put  such  boys  in,  we  could  do  a  little 
work  along  this  line  and  it  would  certainly  meet  with 
the  approval  of  the  best  class,  who  would  be  sure  to  give 
substantial  help.  At  any  rate,  it  would  be  a  work  that 
the  best  Chinese  would  appreciate  and  understand." 
(Spirit  of  Missions,  April,  1913.) 


128  The  Child  in  the  Midst 

SCRIPTURE  READING 
"The  Child  in  the  Midst,"  Matthew,  18:  1-6,  10-14. 
Christ  commends  the  humility  of  the  little  child  and  the 
spirit  of  those  who  receive  a  child  gladly,  whether  into 
the  home,  the  school  room,  or  into  any  part  of  their 
sphere  of  influence.  There  is  no  place  in  Christ's  King- 
dom for  the  one  who  "does  not  want  to  be  bothered  with 
children"  or  who  provokes,  injures,  neglects,  despises,  or 
causes  one  little  one  to  sin. 

"The  feature  of  child-nature  which  forms  the  special 
point  of  comparison  is  its  unpretentiousness.  What 
children  are  unconsciously,  that  Jesus  requires  His  dis- 
ciples to  be  voluntarily  and  deliberately."     (A.  B.  Bruce.) 

PRAYER 

Grant,  O  Heavenly  Father,  that  as  Thy  holy  angels 
always  behold  Thy  face  in  heaven,  so  they  may  evermore 
protect  Thy  little  ones  on  earth  from  all  danger,  both  of 
soul  and  body,  through  Jesus  Christ,  our  Lord. 

Father  of  the  fatherless,  let  the  cry,  we  pray  Thee,  of 
the  orphan  and  the  destitute  enter  into  Thine  ears; 
rescue  them  from  the  perils  of  a  sinful  world  and  bring 
them  to  the  refuge  of  Thy  Heavenly  Home,  for  the  sake 
of  Thy  Holy  Child  Jesus,  our  only  Saviour  and  Redeemer. 
Amen. 

BIBLIOGRAPHY,  CHAPTER  III. 
BOOKS 
Christian   Missions   and   Social   Progress,   Vol.   ii,   J.   S. 

Dennis,  (Revell.) 
Centennial  Survey  of  Christian  Missions,  J.  S.  Dennis, 

(Revell.) 
Gloria  Christi,  Chap,  v,  "Philanthropic  Missions,"  Anna 

R.  B.  Lindsay,  (Macmillan.) 
Children  at  Play  in  Many  Lands,  Katherine  Stanley  Hall 

(Missionary  Education  Movement  of  the  United  States 

and  Canada.) 


0 


The  Child  at  Play  and  at  Work      129 

The  Chinese  Boy  and  Girl,  Isaac  T.  Headland,  (Revell.) 

Village  Life  in  China,  A.  H.  Smith,  (Revell.) 

Japanese  Girls  and  Women,  Alice  M.  Bacon,    (Houghton 

Mifflin  &  Co.) 
The   Happiest   Girl   in   Korea,    Minerva   L.    Guthapfel, 

(Revell.) 
Village  Life  in  Korea,  J.  R.  Moose,  (Smith  &  Lamar.) 
The  Laos  of  North  Siam,  Lilian  Johnson  Curtis,  (West- 
minster Press.) 
The  Jungle  Folk  of  Africa,  R.  H.  Milligan,  (Revell.) 
Congo  Life  and  Folklore,  J.  H.  Weeks,  (Religious  Tract 

Society.) 
Home  Life  in  Turkey,  L.  M.  J.  Garnett,  (Macmillan.) 
Children   of   Persia,    Mrs.    Napier    Malcolm,    (Oliphant, 

Anderson  &  Ferrier.) 
Topsy-Turvey  Land,  E.  A.  &  S.  M.  Zwemer,  (Revell.) 
Recreation. — A    World  Need.     C.  M.  Goethe  in  Survey, 
Oct.  4,  1913. 

LEAFLETS 
The  Bareilly  Orphanage 

Ai  Meis'  Busy  Fingers  Wor  an's      Foreign     Mis- 

As  They  Play  in  China  sionary  Soc.  of  the  Meth- 

O  Kei  San,  the  Child  With        odist  Episcopal  Church. 

No  Hands 
St.  Mary's  Orphanage,  Board    of    Missions  (Epis- 

Shanghai.  copal). 

March  Third  in  Japan  Board     of     Missions     of 

Pres.  Church 
Home  Life  in  Africa  Woman's      Foreign      Mis- 

Other  Children  sionary  Soc.  of  the  Pres- 

byterian Church. 
Autobiography    of    a    Suc- 
cessful Life 
My  little  Blind  Neighbor  Woman's     Bd.     of     Miss. 

of  Interior 
Chinese  Slave  Girls  Woman's    Board    Foreign 

Of    Such    is    the    Kingdom         Missions     of     Reformed 
of  Heaven  Church  in  America. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

THE  CHILD  AT  SCHOOL 

'Come,  ye  children — I  will  teach  you  the  fear  of 
the  Lord." 


The  call  for  schools  from  Mission  Lands — 
Is  missionary  educational  work  still  needed  in 
the  awakening  East? — Divergent  views  on  edu- 
cation— Reasons  why  missionary  education  should 
be  continued — Comparative  illiteracy — Testi- 
mony from  Japan — From  China — From  India — 
From  Mohammedan  lands — Can  we  refuse  the 
united  demand? — Kindergarten  Union  in  Japan 
— The  impressionable  years  of  childhood  and  the 
call  for  Christian  Kindergartens — Inventive  and 
adaptable  missionaries — Primitive  education 
among  backward  nations — Lack  of  power  of 
concentration — Evils  of  the  memorizing  method — 
Old  methods  hard  to  discard — Education  of 
girls — Early  marriage  a  barrier — Now  is  the  time 
to  educate  the  future  mothers — Mission  schools 
and  physical  training — Building  up  a  "great 
personality" — The  need  for  good  literature — 
Industrial  training  in  mission  schools — Extent  of 
American  missionary  education — Where  shall 
we  put  the  emphasis? — How  mission  schools 
lead  children  to  Christ — Mission  school-children 
in  after  life. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

THE  CHILD  AT  SCHOOL 

"Come,  ye  children — I  will  teach  you  the  fear  of 
the  Lord." 


Four  little  boys  less  than  ten  years  of  age  came  The  call  for 

,  -  schools  from 

trudging  over  the  muddy  Korean  road  three  long  mission  lands, 
miles  to  school.  In  their  chilly,  little,  bare  hands 
they  carried  bowls  of  cold  rice  for  dinner.  But 
cheerfully  they  marched  along,  for  the  daily 
six-mile  walk  took  them  to  and  from  the  mission 
school,  and  oh!  what  a  wonderful  privilege 
it  was  to  be  able  to  study, — a  privilege  not  en- 
joyed by  all  the  boys  of  their  village.* 

The  closing  session  of  a  school  for  Jewish 
children  in  the  heart  of  Asia  was  being  held, 
and  many  mothers  listened  with  awe  and  admira- 
tion as  child  after  child  took  part  in  the  simple 
exercises.  "See,"  the  mothers  exclaimed  to  each 
other,  "see  how  our  daughters  are  learning  to 
read,  instead  of  growing  up  to  be  like  donkeys 
as  we  have  done!" 

A  woman  in  the  capital  city  of  Persia,  head  of 

*  Told  in  "Among  the  Top-Knots,"  Mrs.  Underwood  (Am.  Tract 
Soc.) 


134  The  Child  in  the  Midst 

a  Bahaist  school,  insisted  on  sending  her  little 
daughter  to  the  American  mission  school,  pay- 
ing all  tuition  charges  gladly.  "Lady,"  she  said 
to  the  teacher  in  charge,  "whenever  I  come  into 
this  school  my  life  is  renewed." 

Over  the  African  trail  came  a  young  man  who 

had  given  his  heart  to  Christ  and  was  now  ready 

f  to  enter  the  Bible  Training  School  in  order  to 

tfit  himself  for  a  life  work  that  no  foreign  mission- 
ary could  hope  to  accomplish.  Earnestly  he 
plead  with  the  missionaries  to  let  him  bring  his 
little  eleven-year-old  wife  to  be  taught  and 
trained  so  that  she  might  some  day  be  a  true 
help-meet  in  his  work.  But  there  was  no  board- 
ing school  for  girls,  no  available  place  for  the 
child.  Think  what  that  future  home  and  work 
might  have  been  had  the  little  wife  received  a 
Christian  education! 

A  missionary  was  returning  from  an  evangelistic 
tour  over  one  of  the  lonely  roads  of  Palestine. 
Suddenly  he  was  accosted  by  several  armed  men 
in  disguise,  who  demanded  that  he  should  promise 
to  grant  their  request  before  it  was  stated  to 
him.  He  naturally  demurred,  but,  becoming 
convinced  that  they  were  not  robbers,  he  finally 
consented,  realizing  that  his  journey  could  not 
otherwise  be  continued.  Whereupon  they  de- 
manded that  certain  mission  schools  which  had 
been  closed  for  lack  of  funds  should  be  re-opened, 
promising  to  give  as  much  as  possible  towards 
the  necessary  sum.    "It  is  like  depriving  our 


The  Child  at  School  135 

children  of  bread  and  water  and  air,"  they  ex- 
claimed, "to  deprive  them  of  the  opportunity  for 
religious  teaching  and  useful  education."*  A 
peaceful  missionary  held  up  by  a  set  of  masked 
bandits  in  a  Mohammedan  land,  who  demanded, 
not  his  money  nor  his  life,  but  a  Christian  educa- 
tion for  their  children! 

Loud  and  clear  and  insistent  are  the  voices  from 
country  after  country.  In  many  tongues  they 
call  to  us  Christian  women, — "Give  us  a  chance 
to  learn,  let  us  children  have  what  our  parents 
never  had,  put  books  into  our  hands^  train  our 
hands  and  eyes  and  ears  and  hearts  as  well  as 
our  minds,  show  us  how  people  who  love  that 
Jesus  whom  you  tell  about  may  read  of  Him  and 
may  make  their  lives  good  and  happy  and 
useful!" 

It  may  be  the  honest  conviction  of  many  that  If»  missionary 

J  educational 

with  advancing  civilization  and  the  great  political,  ^e°eI|edtIi1n1  the 
social,  and  educational  awakening  in  many  lands,  |™tk?ening 
there  is  no  further  need  for  mission  schools  or  for 
pushing  missionary  educational  work.  Japan 
has  her  public  school  system  with  six  years  of 
compulsory  school  attendance,  and  higher  courses 
combining  cultural  with  practical  education  in  a 
way  that  Western  nations  might  well  follow. 
China  has  done  away  with  the  old  educational 
regime  and  is  patterning  her  new  system  after 
those  of  Christian  lands.  In  India  we  hear  that 
"Mr.  Gokhale's  bill  for  universal  primary  edu- 

*Told  in  Missionary  Review  of  the  World,  Nov.,  1911. 


136  The  Child  in  the  Midst 

cation  has  stirred  the  whole  country  and  will  be 
a  constant  issue  until  it  is  an  accomplished  fact. 
Already  the  government  has  voted  to  increase 
immediately  the  number  of  primary  schools  from 
120,000  to  210,000."*  The  demand  for  educa- 
tion of  girls  as  well  as  of  boys  in  Persia,  Turkey, 
and  Egypt  has  caused  a  marvelous  overturn- 
ing and  re-arranging  of  custom,  prejudice,  public 
opinion,  and  government  action.  In  view  of  all 
this  and  much  more  in  the  same  line,  has  the  time 
come  when  the  matter  of  education  can  be  left 
in  the  hands  of  the  awakening  East,  and  does  our 
obligation  to  the  little  ones  of  non-Christian 
lands  cease  at  the  door  of  the  school  room? 
^i^on*  ^n  order  to  arrive  at  a  fair  answer  to  these  ques- 

education.  tions  it  might  be  well  to  study  and  discuss  some 
divergent  views  on  education  and  then  to  learn 
how  these  questions  are  answered  by  those  who 
were  born  in  non-Christian  lands  or  who  have 
lived  and  worked  there  for  many  years. 

Some  Views  on  Education 

"To  educate  a  girl  is  like  putting  a  knife  into 
the  hands  of  a  monkey."     Hindu  Proverb. 

"The  hope  of  our  country  is  in  the  education  of 
our  girls,  and  we  shall  never  have  statesmen 
till  the  mothers  are  educated."  A  Persian 
Nobleman. 

"Men  are  superior  to  women  on  account  of  the 

*  "Foreign  Mail  Annual,"  1913,  For.  Dep.  Int.  Com.  Y.  M.  C.  A, 


The  Child  at  School  137 

qualities  with  which  God  has  gifted  the  one 
above  the  other."     The  Koran,  Sura  4.38. 

"No  scheme  of  education  for  primitive  races 
can  succeed  that  neglects  the  woman's  influence 
in  the  family  and  the  tribe."    E.  W.  Coffin.** 

"When  a  man  does  not  ask,  'What  shall  I 
think  of  this  and  of  that?'  I  can  do  nothing  with 
him.  Learning  without  thought  is  labor  lost; 
thought  without  learning  is  perilous."  Confucius 
Quoted  in ' '  Oriental  Religions, ' '   Samuel  Johnson . 

"Education  should  lead  and  guide  man  to 
clearness  concerning  himself  and  in  himself,  to 
peace  with  nature  and  to  unity  with  God." 
Froebel. 

"The  aim  of  female  education  is  perfect  sub- 
mission, not  cultivation  and  development  of  the 
mind."    Confucius. 

"Not  knowledge  or  information,  but  self- 
realization  is  the  goal.  To  possess  all  the  world 
of  knowledge  and  lose  one's  own  self  is  as  awful 
a  fate  in  education  as  in  religion."  John 
Dewey. 

The  Head  Master  of  an  English  school  declared 
it  to  be  his  ideal  of  education  to  create  an  atmos- 
phere of  loyalty  that  should  teach  the  pupils 
to  adapt  themselves  to  the  sphere  in  which  their 
lives  should  be  cast,  at  the  same  time  giving  them 
self-reliance  through  the  knowledge  that  they  are 
responsible  for  doing  the  things  that  are  worth 


**  Pedagogical  Seminary,    March,  1908 ,    "Oa  the  Education  of 
Backward  Races." 


138 


The  Child  in  the  Midst 


(Reasons  why 
jmissionary 
/education 
I  should  be 
continued. 


Statistics  of 
illiteracy. 


while,  and  arousing  their  ambition  to  achieve 
that  which  is  highest  and  best. 

As  a  practical  basis  for  the  study  of  our  topic, 
"The  Child  at  School,"  write  out  if  you  will 
your  own  definition  of  the  scope  and  ideals  of 
education,  drawing  up  a  list  of  those  members 
of  the  human  family  who  would  benefit  by  such 
an  education. 

Referring  again  to  the  question  of  whether 
our  missionary  obligation  ceases  when  the  child's 
education  begins,  we  must  first  of  all  realize 
clearly  how  recent  has  been  the  awakening  in 
most  of  these  lands,  how  appalling  is  the  illiteracy, 
how  long  it  will  take  the  most  advanced  govern- 
ment to  meet  the  need  without  assistance,  and 
how  infinitely  more  a  Christian  education  will 
do  for  the  little  ones  than  a  merely  secular  edu- 
cation can  possibly  accomplish. 

From  the  new  Cyclopedia  of  Education*  the 
following  latest  available  statistics  are  taken: — 


Country 


Illiterate 


America  7.7  % 

England  &  Wales        1.8  % 
German  Empire  0 .  03  % 

Ceylon  (all  races) 
India 

Cape  of  Good  Hope 
(Other  than  Euro- 
pean.)        86.2 
Egypt  92.7 


78.3  % 
92.5  % 


% 
% 


Basis 
Pop.  over  10  yrs, 
Marriage 
Army  Recruits 
All  ages 
Over  10  years. 


Year 

1910 

1901-1910 

1904 

1901 

1901 


1904 


1907 


*  Edited  by  Paul  Monroe,  1912.     (Macmillan.) 


The  Child  at  School  139 

Quoting  further  from  the  Cyclopedia  we  learn 
that  "in  Turkey,  India,  and  China  we  find  a 
high  illiteracy  among  the  males,  and  an  almost 
complete  illiteracy  among  the  females.  The 
least  illiteracy  today  is  to  be  found  among  the 
people  in  the  countries  to  the  north  and  west  of 
Europe,  and  of  Teutonic  or  mixed  Teutonic 
stock.  It  was  in  these  countries  that  the  Protest- 
ant Revolt  made  its  greatest  headway  and  the 
ability  to  read  the  Word  of  God  and  to  participate 
in  the  church  services  were  regarded  as  of  great 
importance  for  salvation." 

Sir  J.  D.  Rees,  an  official  of  high  position  and  Sir.J- D-  Ree3 

^  on  illiteracy  in 

distinction  in  India,  makes  this  significant  state-  Asia- 
ment  in  his  volume  on  "Modern  India,"  dated 
1910— "While  it  is  true  that  only  half  the  boys  of 
school-going  age  were  following  a  course  of 
primary  education  when  the  last  census  was 
taken  it  is  extremely  improbable  that  in  any 
other  part  of  Asia  anything  approaching  that 
number  has  been  ever  attained,  or  in  any  Orien- 
tal country  under  European  control." 

Let  us  go  back  to  Japan  as  to  the  one  of  all  non-  Jadua<jftion  in 
Christian  lands  that  has  made  the  greatest  ad- 
vance along  educational  lines.  After  a  visit 
to  Japan  with  many  opportunities  for  observa- 
tion and  study  of  the  subject,  Miss  Kate  G. 
Lamson  says:* 

Education  for  the  masses  has  long  since  justified  itself 
to  the  Japanese.    That  education  is  universal  and  com- 

*Life  and  Light,  Oct.,  1912. 


140  The  Child  in  the  Midst 

pulsory  is  abundantly  proved  by  the  crowds  of  school 
children  seen  in  every  part  of  the  country.  This  naturally 
leads  the  observer  to  question  the  need  of  outside  help, 
especially  missionary  help,  along  educational  lines,  and 
outside  of  two  or  three  large  centres  our  Board  has  applied 
itself  largely  to  the  development  of  church  organization 
and  evangelistic  work.  Yet  the  experience  of  years  has 
revealed  an  imperative  need  of  the  missionary  even  in 
the  ranks  of  education  in  Japan.  .  . 

With  schools  everywhere,  under  an  able  and  full  staff 
of  instructors,  with  up-to-date  appliances  for  every  branch 
that  is  to  be  taught,  moral  and  religious  training  are  not 
provided  for,  and  the  well-polished  husk  of  educated 
manhood  and  womanhood  without  the  inner  life  is  the 
result.  The  dangers  attending  non-religious  education 
have  not  failed  to  make  themselves  apparent  to  the 
watchful  Japanese.  .  . 

In  every  land  we  believe  the  hope  of  the  nations  lies 
largely  in  the  training  of  little  children.  Christianity  in 
Japan  has  laid  hold  upon  this  and  has  set  the  pace  in  the 
establishing  of  kindergartens.  .  . 

Although  education  in  Japan  is  compulsory,  it  is  a 
fact  that  it  is  beyond  the  reach  of  the  poorest  people. 
This  anomalous  situation  is  caused  by  the  charges  for 
tuition  and  books  imposed  upon  all  scholars.  These 
charges  are  so  high  as  to  be  prohibitive  for  the  very  poor, 
and  the  result  shows  in  the  absence  of  their  children  from 
school.  In  thif  lies  a  direct  invitation  for  missionary 
effort. 
Opinion  of  a         These  words  from  a  Christian  observer  and 

leading  Japa-  ,  1         •  1 

neae.  student  of  missions  find  an  echo  in  the  remark 

of  a  leading  Japanese,  himself  a  non-Christian, 
to  one  of  the  team  of  workers  of  the  Men  and 
Religion  Movement: — "I  am  convinced  that 
Japan  must  become  Christian  or  she  will  never 
become  a  great  nation." 


The  Child  at  School  141 

So  much  is  being  said  and  published  about  the  JSjJgfirtn 
wonderful  developments  in  China  and  the  new  China- 
system  of  education  that  is  taking  the  place  of 
the  old,  time-honored  memorizing  of  the  "  Four 
Books"  and  the  "Five  Classics,"  that  we  need 
not  here  go  into  the  subject  in  detail.    But  we 
must  stop  to  query: — Where  is  China  to  procure  JJJt^Kiba 
the  hundreds  and  thousands  of  teachers  who  are  trained? 
needed  to  train  not  only  the  children  at  present 
but  the  teachers  of  future  generations  of  children? 
For  many  long  years  she  must  look  largely  to 
missionary  schools  to  prepare  her  future  educators. 
From  a  report  on  the  Educational  Work  of  the 
Presbyterian  Board  of  Foreign  Missions  we  quote 
the    following: 

The  wisdom  of  the  West  in  matters  of  courses  of  study, 
together  with  methods  of  teaching,  discipline,  etc.,  are 
brought  directly  from  our  best  institutions  and  freely 
offered  upon  the  altar  of  Chinese  regeneration.  The 
results  of  these  years  have  also  proven  that  these  best 
things  are  adapted  to  the  young  Chinese  minds,  and  that 
they  appreciate  them  when  they  once  come  to  know  them. 
The  products  of  these  years  show  that  our  Christian 
schools  have  been  getting  hold  of  some  excellent  material, 
and  that  there  is  such  true  worth  and  high  possibility 
that  all  effort  to  develop  these  bright  minds  and  sincere 
hearts  is  well  worth  while,  and  that  in  doing  so  a  great 
service  is  rendered  to  China.  .  .  A  number  of  young 
women  of  fine  type  have  been  educated  in  the  schools 
for  girls,  who  are  proving  themselves  apt  to  teach  and 
work  for  their  own  people  in  the  conduct  of  boarding  and 
day  schools  and  women's  classes. 

So  highly  does  the  Indian  government  prize  Jomt^i^11*8 
the  work  of  the  missionary  schools  that  each  Bchoola- 


142 


The  Child  in  the  Midst 


New  demand 
for  education  in 
Persia  and 
Turkey. 


Messages  from 
Persian  par- 
ents. 


of  them  which  is  held  to  the  required  standard 
of  efficiency  receives  a  grant  for  partial  support. 
The  American  Board  Bulletin  says,  "Our  tre- 
mendous school  system  in  Ceylon  of  more  than 
ten  thousand  pupils  is  carried  on  practically 
at  government  expense." 

In  a  village  in  India  the  parents'  request  for  a 
school  was  answered  by  the  statement  that  if 
such  a  school  were  opened,  the  Bible  would  be 
taught  in  it.  Quickly  the  reply  came,  "Teach 
your  religion,  but  educate  our  boys." 

When  the  century  opened,  Persia  and  Turkey 
were  asleep.  Suddenly  came  the  awakening,  the 
reaching  out  for  something  new  and  different, 
and,  as  in  the  case  of  China,  one  of  the  first 
thoughts  was, — Our  children  must  be  educated. 
Instinctively  thev  turned  to  the  missionaries 
who  for  long  years  had  quietly,  steadily,  sown 
the  seed,  prepared  literature,  set  up  printing 
presses,  trained  preachers  and  teachers.  Boys 
and  girls  began  to  flock  into  the  mission  schools. 

"Fathers  sent  pleasant  messages,"  wrote  a 
missionary  in  Teheran  in  1911.  "One  said,  'Your 
girls  make  better  wives  and  mothers  and  in  every 
way  better  women,  than  others.'  Another,  'I 
wish  my  wife  had  been  educated,  but  I  am  deter- 
mined my  daughter  shall  be.'  An  Armenian  of 
wealth  and  influence  is  reported  to  have  answered 
to  a  remonstrance  against  sending  his  little 
daughter  to  us.  instead  of  to  their  national 
school:   'Did  I   ever  refuse  to  give  you  money? 


The  Child  at  School  143 

I  will  continue  to  help  support  our  national 
schools,  but  I  must  send  my  daughters  (he  has 
five)  where  they  can  really  obtain  an  education. 
They  can  learn  in  one  week  all  you  can  teach 
them  about  going  to  theatricals  and  dances.' 
A  friend  was  telling  us  that  her  sister  would 
send  her  girls  to  us.  'Why?'  'Because  every 
Moslem  in  this  city  understands  that  your 
school  is  the  only  one  where  girls  really  learn. 
Why  should  my  sister  be  the  only  fool? '  "* 

These  messages  are  significant  in  view  of  the  £rlirfshi°nl3 
fact  that  in  a  brief  time  seventy  girls'  schools  Teheran- 
were  reported  to  have  sprung  up  suddenly  in 
Persia's  capital  city,  with  an  enrolment  of  five 
thousand  pupils.**  But  scarcely  half  a  dozen 
of  those  at  the  head  of  the  schools  had  ever 
been  to  school  themselves,  and  the  testimony 
from  all  over  Persia  was  the  same  as  that  at  the 
capital, — "The  missionary  schools  are  the  best." 

Here  is  the  eager  call  from  Turkey  :*** 

The  gradual  awakening  of  the  villages  to  the  need  of  Thghcearg  -°r 
better  schools  increases  yearly  the  calls  for  teachers.  The  Turkey. 
Sivas  Normal  School  reports  that  the  work  of  the  past 
summer  was  very  hard.  "We  were  obliged  to  refuse 
calls  for  more  than  forty  teachers,  not  a  few  of  them 
from  places  to  which  we  had  never  supplied  teachers. 
The  following  quotation  from  a  letter  from  the  Armenian 
Bishop  of  one  of  our  large  cities  is  a  fair  sample :  'We  wish 
to  call  for  the  Armenian  schools  of  our  city  the  following 

*  Woman's  Work,  Aug.,  1911.    Cora  C.  Bartlett. 

**  Told  by  Miss  A.  W.  Stocking  in  Moslem  World,  Oct.,  1912. 

***  Congregationalist  and  Christian  World,  Dec.  26,  1912. 


144 


The  Child  in  the  Midst 


teachers:  a  principal,  a  lady  principal,  teachers  for 
Armenian,  Turkish,  and  French,  and  three  teachers  for 
scientific  branches.  If  you  have  among  your  experi- 
enced teachers  or  among  the  new  graduates  persons  to 
recommend,  please  inform  us  at  once  in  order  that  we 
may  invite  them.' " 


A  Kurdish 
father. 


Can  we 
refuse  the 
demand? 


One  hardly  knows  whether  to  laugh  or  to 
cry  over  the  Kurdish  father  up  in  the  wild 
mountains  of  Kurdistan  who  brought  his  boy  to 
the  little  school  taught  by  a  native  helper,  whack- 
ing him  with  a  stick  to  make  the  reluctant  youth 
walk  in  the  paths  of  learning,  while  he  declared, 
"I  am  not  going  to  let  my  boy  grow  up  in  the 
street." 

When  great  governments,  ecclesiastical  au- 
thorities, wealthy  noblemen,  and  fierce  warriors 
from  the  mountain  fastnesses  all  clamor  for  what 
the  missionary  schools  can  do  for  their. children, 
have  we  a  right  to  refuse  their  request?  Can  we 
claim  freedom  from  responsibility? 

Rather  let  us  glory  in  the  unparalleled  oppor- 
tunity for  giving  to  the  needy  children  of  non- 
Christian  lands  that  which  has  proven  to  be  the 
only  true  source  of  mental  preparation  for  life- 
work, — a  Christian  education.  Hear  the  testi- 
mony of  Dr.  F.  W.  Foerster,  author  and  special 
lecturer  in  Ethics  and  Psychology  in  the  Univer- 
sity of  Zurich,  a  man  who  began  his  educational 
work  with  sympathies  strongly  socialistic  and 
entirely  aloof  from  all  forms  of  religion.  In  the 
author's  preface  to  his  book,  "Marriage  and  the 


Cminkse  Mary 

A  Cripple  for  life,  because  she  took  a  nap  at  tlie 
wrong  time 


The  Child  at  School  145 

Sex  Problem,"  he  speaks  with  no  uncertain  sound 
of  his  own  experience  and  conviction. 
The  author  of  this  book  comes  from  the  ranks  of  those  *?*•  Foereter  on 

•  ,       11       t    •  t»    .  i  1*1  Education  and 

who  dispense  with  all  religion.  But  as  the  result  of  long  Christianity, 
experience,  theoretical  and  practical,  in  the  difficult  work 
of  character-training,  he  has  been  led  to  realize  for  him- 
self the  deep  meaning  and  the  profound  pedagogical 
wisdom  of  the  Christian  method  of  caring  for  souls,  and 
to  appreciate,  through  his  own  experience,  the  value  of 
the  old  truths.  .  .  He  has  absolutely  no  doubt  that  mod- 
ern education,  in  discovering  the  extraordinary  practical 
difficulties  of  character-training,  will  be  increasingly 
cured  of  its  optimistic  illusions  and  led  back  to  an  under- 
standing and  appreciation  of  Christianity. 

How  about  the  children  themselves?  Do  they 
enjoy  and  appreciate  school  privileges  offered 
them  by  the  missionaries,  and  does  the  work 
show  results  that  are  worth  while? 

If,  as  Miss  Lamson  claims,  "the  hope  of  the  gjgggg^ 
nations  lies  in  the  training  of  little  children," 
there  is  hope  for  Japan  in  the  ninety-eight 
mission  kindergartens  that  are  maintained  by 
fourteen  Protestant  Boards  and  have  an  enrol- 
ment of  four  thousand  and  sixty-eight  children. 
The  report  of  the  Kindergarten  Union  of  Japan 
is  a  most  fascinating  volume,  with  its  presentation 
of  opportunity,  need,  method,  and  the  result 
of  teaching  the  tiny  children  who  are  to  be  the 
future  parents,  teachers,  and  leaders  of  thought 
and  action  in  that  Empire.  A  few  extracts  will 
give  a  little  idea  of  what  is  being  done  for  the 
children  and  through  them  for  their  homes  and 
friends. 


146 


The  Child  in  the  Midst 


A  Japanese 
teacher  on 
Christian 
kindergartens. 


geaujig  of 
sending  the 
children  to 
kindergarten. 


The  kindergarten  in  our  country  today  is  at  its  most 
critical  stage,  and  therefore  needs  the  best  and  most 
profound  thinkers  who  can  put  their  ideals  into  practice 
most  tactfully.  This  must  be  accomplished  by  native 
Christian  kindergartners.  Education  without  religious 
foundations  is  like  an  egg  without  the  germ  of  life  in  it. 
Most  of  our  public  and  government  kindergartens,  which 
have  the  purely  so-called  educational  views  of  today,  are 
leaving  the  very  springs  of  child  life  untouched,  and 
therefore  are  not  fulfilling  the  real  meaning  of  education. 
They  are  not  disciples  of  Froebel,  because  he  based  his 
philosophy  on  the  Christian  faith.  (Fuji  Takamori  of 
Holy  Love  Kindergarten,  Methodist.) 

A  teacher  writes,  "A  little  girl  whose  father  and  mother 
were  Christians  entered  our  school.  At  first  a  little 
nursemaid  brought  her,  then  her  grandmother  came  with 
her.  This  grandmother  was  a  devoted  Buddhist.  She 
would  not  even  look  at  the  foreign  teacher,  much  less 
listen  to  anything  being  taught,  but  at  last  she  began  to 
listen,  and  eventually  became  convinced  that  she  needed 
Christ  for  her  Saviour.  Today  she  is  a  truly  converted 
woman."  .  .  . 

The  blessing  asked  at  the  noon  lunch  seemed  to  make  a 
deep  impression  on  some  children,  and  doing  it  at  home 
attracts  the  parents'  attention,  so  that  a  number  of  them 
have  been  known  to  come  to  the  church  services  to  hear 
more  about  the  meaning  of  prayer  and  praise.  (Mrs.  A.  D. 
Gordon.) 

We  are  told  that  the  songs,  the  games,  the  stories,  and 
sometimes  the  prayers,  are  household  exercises  in  many 
homes.  On  a  recent  morning,  which  we  spent  by  invita- 
tion of  the  wife  of  the  Governor  in  her  garden,  the  little 
Bon  of  the  family,  not  yet  of  kindergarten  age,  took  an 
active  part  with  the  other  children.  His  mother  told  me 
that  the  older  sister  comes  home  and  "plays  kindergarten" 
with  her  small  brother,  and  that,  when  they  have  guests 
to  entertain,  the  children  are  often  called  in  to  give  some 


The  Child  at  School  147 

kindergarten  exercise.  I  did  not  tell  her  how  strongly  I 
disapprove  of  "showing  off"  children  before  company. 
I  only  prayed  that  "a  little  child  might  lead  them."  (Mrs. 
Genevieve  F.  Topping,  of  Morioka  Kindergarten,  Bap- 
tist.) 

An  amusing  incident  happened  one  day  when  the  chil- 
dren were  off  on  an  observation  trip.  They  had  to  stop 
to  let  a  detachment  of  soldiers  pass,  and  spontaneously 
burst  out  singing  "Soldier  Boy,  soldier  Boy,"  to  the 
great  amusement  of  the  soldiers.  Then  they  all  saluted 
the  officer  in  proper  fashion,  but  he  only  smiled.  "Sensei, 
we  saluted  politely,  why  didn't  he  return  the  salute?" 

Later  as  the  soldiers  were  drawn  up  in  circular  forma- 
tion on  the  parade  ground,  the  children  said,  "Oh,  now 
they  are  going  to  play  just  as  we  do  in  kindergarten, 
let's  watch!"  So  the  expedition  which  started  out  to 
study  insect  life  changed  into  a  lesson  on  soldiers  and 
their  absolute  obedience  to  orders.  (Alice  F.yock  of 
Sendai  Aoba  Yochien,  American  Episcopal.) 

A  similar  Kindergarten  Union  is  being  formed  The.caii  for 

.      ,  .  missionary 

in  China,  and  from  all  missionary  lands  comes  kindergartners. 
the  urgent  cry  for  trained  kindergartners  who  can 
not  only  start  schools,  but,  far  more  than  this, 
can  train  native  kindergartners  to  take  up  the 
work.  It  would  be  hard  to  overemphasize  the 
importance  of  this  particular  service  which  mis- 
sions are  rendering. 

Dr.  Thomas  M.  Balliet  of  New  York  Univer-  &*•  Ba!Ueton 

.  .  ci  i  tne  early  yeai 

sity   voices   the   opmion   of   modern   educators  of  childhood. 

when  he  says,  "All  the  more  recent  studies  in 

child  psychology  emphasize  the  great  plasticity 

of   the   early  years   of   childhood.    The   habits 

which  the  child  then  forms,  and  the  attitude  both 

intellectual  and  emotional  which  is  then  given 


148  .   The  Child  in  the  Midst 

him,  are  more  lasting  and  more  determining  for 
his  adult  life  than  was  even  suspected  some  years 
ago."* 
chnstLnhe  After  a  hasty  mental  review  of  what  has  been 

needed?arten  studied  in  earlier  chapters  regarding  the  home 
life  and  training  of  little  children  in  non-Chris- 
tian lands,  it  is  surely  a  mild  statement  to  make 
that  the  Christian  kindergarten  is  an  absolute 
necessity  if  these  little  ones,  so  cunning  and 
capable  and  helpless,  are  to  have  any  chance  at 
all  for  proper  development.  The  words  "Chris- 
tian kindergarten"  are  used  advisedly,  and  agree 
with  utterances  of  experts  such  as  Elizabeth 
Harrison,  who  says, — 

"The  foundation  of  the  kindergarten  is  based 
upon  the  psychological  revelation  that,  if  man 
is  the  child  of  God,  he  must  possess  infinite 
possibilities,  and  that  these  possibilities  can  only 
develop  as  he,  man,  makes  use  of  them — that  in 
other  words,  man  is  a  self-making  being,  that  his 
likeness  to  the  Divine  Father  consists  in  this 
power  within  him  to  unfold  and  develop  his 
divine  nature."** 
Children  of  Students  of  primitive  and  backward  races  tell 

backward  races 

respond  to  early  us  that  the  small  children  show  as  much  promise 

training. 

and  as  many  signs  of  undeveloped  capability 
as  do  children  of  civilized  lands,  but  before  many 
years  a  cloud  seems  to  overcast  their   minds, 

*  "Kindergartens  and  'Near  Kindergartens,'  "  Child  Welfare  Mag- 
azine, Sept.,  1912. 

**  "Mountain  Tops  and  Valleys  of  Humanity,"  Child  Welfare 
Magazine,  Dec,  1912. 


The  Child  at  School  140 

while  selfishness  and  sin  and  passion  take  posses- 
sion of  their  moral  natures.  Never  again  is 
there  the  same  chance  to  make  them  what  they 
might  have  been,  as  there  was  during  those  first 
early  days  when  the  kindergarten  should  have 
opened  wide  her  doors  to  receive  them.  This 
argument  would  in  itself  seem  sufficient  to  urge 
missionary  Boards  to  speedy,  thorough  action 
in  this  matter,  but  there  is  another  far-reaching 
argument  to  be  considered.  All  through  the 
East,  wherever  there  are  missionary  kinder- 
gartens, mothers  come  to  them  to  learn  how  to 
train  their  children,  and  countless  homes  have 
caught  and  passed  on  a  reflection  of  the  Christ 
life  because  of  what  the  mothers  have  heard  and 
observed  and  what  the  children  have  taken 
home  with  them.  Make  a  flying  trip  to  the 
Fuchow  Kindergarten  and  watch  "the  irrepres- 
sible John." 

"This  little  lad's  father  died,  after  a  period  of 
faithful  service  in  Miss  Wiley's  kitchen,  and  when 
the  widowed  mother  came  back  to  Miss  Wiley 
from  her  country  home  to  earn  a  living  for  herself 
and  John  and  baby  Joseph,  John  was  already 
master  of  the  situation  and  of  his  mother,  and 
enforced  his  will  on  that  by  no  means  weak- 
minded  woman  by  kicking,  biting,  pulling  her 
ears,  and  similar  methods.  Now  Miss  Wiley 
is  a  famous  trainer  of  boys,  and  she  soon  taught 
the  young  mother  that  the  masculine  will  is  not 
necessarily  law  at  the  age  of  two  plus;  the  kinder- 


150 


The  Child  in  the  Midst 


Kindergart- 
nera  must  be 
inventive  and 
adaptable. 


A  West 
African 
kindergarten. 


garten  carried  out  the  same  idea,  and  now  John 
devotes  vast  energy  and  determination  to  the 
shaping  of  inanimate  clay  into  pigs  and  other 
fascinating  things,  and  treats  animate  nature  as 
a  well-mannered  and  kindly,  little  gentleman 
should."* 

It  would  be  most  interesting  and  instructive 
to  make  a  tour  of  missionary  kindergartens  for 
the  purpose  of  seeing  how  ingenious  our  mis- 
sionary teachers  are,  how  they  adapt  Froebel's 
ideas  and  methods  to  the  most  extraordinary 
circumstances  which  would  have  made  that 
great  educator  gasp,  how  they  must  not  only 
translate  and  adapt  songs  and  tunes  and  games, 
but  compose  and  create  and  invent, — all  in  an 
acquired  language  which  has  perhaps  been  only  re- 
cently reduced  to  writing  by  some  pioneer  mission- 
ary. It  might  be  pertinent  to  ask  if  all  Women's 
Boards  provide  the  kindergartners  and  other 
teachers  whom  they  send  to  the  foreign  field  with 
a  first-class  outfit  of  all  needed  material,  and  if 
they  remember  that  such  an  outfit  needs  to  be 
replenished  at  least  as  often  as  a  similar  one 
does  in  the  home  land.  It  is  not  fair  to  require 
a  missionary  to  make  bricks  without  straw. 

A  visit  to  a  West  African  Kindergarten  will 
show  an  inventive  and  adaptable  missionary  in 
charge. 

We  have  a  new  primary  Sunday-School  room  which  will 
be  my  kindergarten.     It  is  a  low  wall  covered  by  a  round 

*  "The  Children's  Gardens,"  Woman's  Board  of  Missions,  (Cong.) 


The  Child  at  School 


151 


thatched  roof  high  enough  to  leave  a  good  big  space  for 
air.  The  floor  is  mudded  and  marked  in  squares.  It 
looks  very  nice,  but  I  shall  take  pains  to  get  the  cracks 
filled  up,  for  they  catch  too  much  dirt  and  jigger  seeds. 
The  benches  are  not  yet  made,  so  the  children  who  were 
cleaned  up  for  Sunday  went  after  leaves  to  sit  on.  The 
classes  have  to  go  out  under  trees  to  separate,  but  it  is 
a  great  improvement  upon  the  dirty  and  dangerous  saw 
pit  where  they  have  met  for  so  long.  The  only  advantage 
about  the  saw  pit  was  the  roof  for  shade  and  pieces  of 
wood  and  logs  to  sit  upon.  The  big  folks  have  been 
getting  most  of  the  attention  and  all  of  the  advantages, 
but  we  feel  that  the  children  should  have  most  because 
they  are  in  the  future.  They  do  not  show  such  shining 
results  at  once,  but  work  with  them  will  lay  a  foundation 
which  is  greatly  needed  here  for  really  effective  work.  .  .  . 
I  have  a  box  cupboard,  a  sand  table,  two  long  low 
tables  marked  with  squares,  and  strong  benches.  I  have 
not  much  kindergarten  material,  but  I  do  not  need  more 
at  present.  My  first  "gift"  is  a  basin  of  water.  They 
march  in  singing  "Good  morning,  kind  teacher"  (only 
I  am  thankful  to  say  the  Umbundu  words  leave  out  the 
"kind").  Then  we  sing  another  song  or  two,  and  the 
prayer  with  bowed  heads.  I  have  no  music,  so  I  have 
to  learn  the  tunes  myself  before  I  come  to  school.  The 
children  are  the  dearest,  cunning  things  and  they  do  want 
to  learn.* 

There  are  lands  such  as  large  sections  of  Africa  Prfpit^6  edu- 

0  cation  among 

and  many  of  the  Pacific  Islands  where  no  edu-  backward  na- 

"  tions. 

cation  whatever  existed,  where  the  language  was 
not  even  reduced  to  writing,  until  Christian 
missionaries  began  their  work.  Other  countries 
gave  a  certain  so-called  education  to  their  boys 
or  to  the  sons  of  certain  privileged  classes,  leav- 


*  Life  and  Light,  March,  1912.    Janettc  E.  Miller. 


152 


The  Child  in  the  Midst 


Lack  of  con- 
centration. 


Evils  of  the 
memorizing 
method. 


ing  the  girls  absolutely  illiterate.  They  agreed 
in  principle  if  not  in  expression  with  that  man  in 
the  mountains  of  Kurdistan  who  was  asked  by 
a  missionary  to  send  his  bright  little  daughter 
down  to  the  mission  school  at  the  beginning  of  the 
fall  term.  "Do  you  want  my  girl?"  questioned 
the  man  in  amazement  and  disgust.  "Why  don't 
you  take  my  cow?" 

Again  in  other  sections  girls  have  a  brief 
chance  to  learn,  but  are  not  expected  to  keep 
pace  with  their  brothers  or  to  attain  to  any- 
thing beyond  the  rudiments  of  book  learning. 

A  missionary  educator  from  Turkey  says  that 
one  of  the  greatest  difficulties  in  school  work 
arises  from  the  fact  that  the  children  have  no 
power  of  concentration,  no  idea  of  how  to  think 
and  study  on  one  line  for  any  length  of  time. 
It  often  takes  five  or  six  years  for  a  child  really 
to  learn  how  to  study.  Obviously,  the  earlier 
these  preparatory  years  occur  in  a  child's  life, 
the  more  benefit  may  he  hope  to  derive  from  his 
education. 

Then  again,  if  children  learn  their  first 
lessons  in  the  native  schools  of  Turkey,  Persia, 
Korea,  and  various  other  countries,  they  will 
become  fixed  in  the  habit  of  memorizing  without 
giving  any  intelligent  thought  to  what  they 
learn.    Dr.  S.  M.  Zwemer  says: 

"A  Moslem  lad  is  not  supposed  to  know  what 
the  words  and  sentences  mean  which  he  must 
recite  every  day;  to  ask  a  question  regarding  the 


The  Child  at  School  153 

thought  of  the  Koran  would  only  result  in  a 
rebuke  or  something  more  painful.  Even  gram- 
mar, logic,  history,  and  theology  are  taught  by 
rote  in  the  higher  Mohammedan  schools.  .  . 
Thousands  of  Moslem  lads,  who  know  the  whole 
Koran  nearly  by  heart,  cannot  explain  the 
meaning  of  the  first  chapter  in  every-day  lan- 
guage. Tens  of  thousands  can  '  read '  the 
Koran  at  random  in  the  Moslem  sense  of  reading, 
who  cannot  read  an  Arabic  newspaper  intelli- 
gently."* 

How  utterly  this  differs  from  the  theory  and 
practice  of  Dr.  Montessori,  who  ''calls  a  child 
disciplined  who  is  master  of  himself,  and  there- 
fore able  to  dispose  of  or  control  himself  when- 
ever he  needs  to  follow  a  rule  of  life.  The  liberty 
of  the  child  must  have  as  its  limit  only  the  col- 
lective interest.  To  interfere  with  this  spon- 
taneity is,  in  Dr.  Montessori's  view,  perhaps  to 
repress  the  very  essential  of  life  itself."**  How 
can  a  child  be  master  of  himself  who  is  not  even 
allowed  to  inquire  into  the  meaning  of  what  he' 
reads  and  studies? 

It  is  not  always  easy  for  the  missionary  suddenly  hird'to'dC.-8 
to  introduce  changes  of  method  and  practice, 
and  many  a  missionary  school  which  is  infinitely 
superior  to  the  native  institution  might  shock 
an  American  school  superintendent  beyond  re- 


*  "How  Orthodox  Mohammedans  Educate  a  Child."     Dd.  of  For. 
Miss.  Itef.  Ch. 

**  "The  Montessori  System,"  Tbeodate  L.  Smith,  (Harper.) 


card. 


154  The  Child  in  the  Midst 

covery.  A  missionary  from  China  wrote, — 
"I  found  I  must  still  keep  many  old  methods  or 
the  Chinese  would  not  send  their  children.  I 
have  found  it  necessary  to  let  them  learn  portions 
of  Scripture  and  classics  and  shout  them  at  the 
tops  of  their  voices,  then  gradually  work  in  music, 
geography,  and  arithmetic."  Another  argument 
for  beginning  as  early  as  possible  with  the  children 
who  can  so  easily  adapt  themselves  to  ideas  of  a 
quiet,  orderly  school  if  they  have  never  enjoyed 
exercising  their  lungs  in  one  of  the  other  kind! 

Szb&ffeoL  In  speaking  of  primitive  education  among 
backward  nations,  mention  was  made  of  the  scant 
attention  given  to  girls  as  compared  to  boys. 
The  London  Times  not  long  ago  stated  in  com- 
menting on  the  women  of  Persia,  "As  a  matter 
of  fact,  probably  not  one  girl  in  a  thousand 
twenty  years  ago  ever  received  any  education. 
When  the  parents  were  rich  enough,  tuition  of  a 
sort  was  given  at  home,  but  in  the  case  of  poorer 
persons  it  was  enough  if  their  sons  were  taught 
to  read  and  write." 

In  contrast  we  learn  that  in  the  spring  of  1913 
about  one  thousand  children  from  Moslem  homes 
were  in  attendance  at  Protestant  missionary 
schools  in  Persia,  over  two  hundred  of  them 
being  girls. 

Early  marriage       In  Mohammedan  and  other  lands  the  custom 

a  barrier  to  ....  , 

education.  of  early  marriage  is  an  almost  insuperable  barrier 
to  an  adequate  education  for  a  girl.  That  this 
custom  must  be  changed,  if  men  are  to  have 


The  Child  at  School  155 

worthy  wives  and  if  children  are  to  be  properly 
trained,  is  a  truth  that  is  beginning  to  be  realized. 
The  recent  great  awakening  and  desire  for  educa- 
tion is  creating  a  marvelous  change  in  age-long 
customs. 

Lord  Cromer  says:   "The  position  of  women  in  Egypt,   ^ig^^00 
and  in  Mohammedan  countries  generally,  is  a  fatal  obstacle   Egypt, 
to  the  attainment  of  that  elevation  of  thought  and  char- 
acter which  should  accompany  the  introduction  of  Euro- 
pean civilization,  if  that  civilization  is  to  produce  its  full 
measure  of  beneficial  effect.     The  obvious  remedy  would 
appear  to  be  to  educate  the  women.  .  .  When  the  first 
efforts  to  promote  female  education  were  made,  they  met 
with  little  sympathy  from  the  population  in  general.  .  . 
Most  of  the  upper-class  Egyptians  were  not  merely  indiffer- 
ent to  female  education;  they  were  absolutely  opposed  to 
it.  .  . 

"All  this  has  now  been  changed.  The  reluctance  of 
parents  to  send  their  daughters  to  school  has  been  largely 
overcome.  .  .  The  younger  generation  are  beginning  to 
demand  that  their  wives  shall  possess  some  qualifications 
other  than  those  which  can  be  secured  in  the  seclusion  of 
the  harem." 

In  1912  Lord  Kitchener  states  that  "There  is  probably 
nothing  more  remarkable  in  the  social  history  of  Egypt 
during  the  last  dozen  years  than  the  growth  of  public 
opinion  among  all  classes  of  Egyptians  in  favor  of  the  edu- 
cation of  their  daughters.  The  girls'  schools  belonging 
to  the  Ministry  of  Education  are  crowded,  and  to  meet 
the  growing  demand  sites  have  been  acquired  and  fresh 
schools  are  to  be  constructed,  one  at  Alexandria  and  two 
in  Cairo.  Very  many  applications  have,  however,  to  be 
refused."  * 

*  "Education  of  Girls  in  the  Levant."     T.  H.  P.  Sailer  in  Wom- 
an's Work,  Aug.,  1912. 


156  The  Child  in  the  Midst 

^h?ofanin  the         To  these  quotations  Dr.  Sailer  adds  the  signifi- 
lead-  cant  words, — "The  missionary  schools  for  girls 

are  yet  in  the  lead  in  their  moral  atmosphere. 
The  government  officials  were  prompt  in  ac- 
knowledging that  missionary  teachers  brought 
to  their  work  a  spirit  which  money  could  not 
buy." 

Scant  justice  can  be  done  in  these  few  pages 
to  the  whole  vast  subject  of  the  education  of 
girls  in  the  East,  and  the  rapid  changes  that  are 
taking  place  in  regard  to  it.  A  careful  study  of 
the  subject  will  well  repay  the  thoughtful  woman. 
As  all  roads  lead  to  Rome,  so  all  reading  and 
observation  along  this  line  will  lead  the  candid 
Now  is  the        student  to  one  conclusion : — Now  is  the  time  to 

time  to  educate 

the  future  determine  the  character  of  the  mothers  of  the  next 

mothers.  ,  *  J 

generation    of   children    in    non-Christian    lands. 
What    those    little    bright-eyed    hnby    girls    of 
Afrrn    nH    Tnrh'fl,   ^"-Wpy  and    Korea,   nre   to   he 
and  do,  what  their  homes  are  f"  hp  m™,  ™hfltt 
start  in  life  thgr  children  pre,  fr>  i™^,  will  )>r> 

lflTflfilv  determine^  hy  wfrnf.  wp  Clhrixtinn  women, 
c\n  or  fail  to  Ho  for  t.hpm  tnrl^y  If  it  is  too  late 
to  do  much  for  their  mothers  before  these  children 
have  left  their  homes,  why  not  gather  the  children 
into  kindergartens  and  primary  schools,  why  not 
teach  the  little  ones  now  while  their  minds  are 
plastic  and  impressionable?  Why  not  do  our 
•  share  toward  bringing  Christian  civilization  into 
darkened  lands  by  educating  in  Christian  schools 
today  the  mothers  of  tomorrow? 


The  Child  at  School  157 

In  the  preceding  chapter  great  emphasis  was  Jrento^w!1" 
laid  on  the  necessity  for  teaching  the  children  of 
many  mission  lands  how  to  play,  not  only  for 
the  benefit  of  their  health  and  to  bring  joy  and 
brightness  into  their  lives,  but  also  in  order  to 
teach  them  what  "fair  play"  and  co-operation 
mean.  It  is  the  missionary  school,  from  kinder- 
garten up  to  university,  that  gives  the  golden 
opportunity  for  this  teaching,  as  is  shown  by  the 
testimony  of  a  missionary  from  Tientsin,  China : — 
"We  believe  that  such  games  teach  them  to  be 
honest  in  business  dealings  later,  to  be  truthful, 
unselfish,  quick-witted,  and  self-controlled.  The 
change  which  I  have  seen  in  these  little,  un-taught, 
ill-cared-for  children  after  five  years  in  the  mis- 
sion school  is  due  in  part,  I  believe,  to  the  lessons 
of  'fair  play'  learned  in  their  games." 

But  the  school  must  go  even  further  than  this 
and  include  in  its  curriculum  physical  education 
of  a  very  definite  kind  if  it  is  to  meet  all  the  needs 
of  the  children  it  is  serving.  Taking  as  an 
example  of  all  mission  lands,  China,  whose  system 
of  education  antedates  by  many  centuries  all 
our  western  civilization,  let  us  observe  through 
the  eyes  of  the  former  physical  director  of  the 
Shanghai  Y.  M.  C.  A.  what  the  real  situation  is. 

Physical  training  should  be  dignified  by  giving  it  an   Physical 
equal  place  with  the  sciences,  philosophies,  and  languages   traimng- 
in  the  curriculum,  and  the  same  careful  provision  of  means 
and  trained  men  to  direct  it.     No  educational  system  is 
adequate  which  does  not  aim  at  the  whole  man,  which 


158  The  Child  in  the  Midst 

does  not  recognize  the  physical  basis  of  intellectual  and 
spiritual  efficiency.  Professor  Tyler  of  Amherst  says, 
"Brain  and  muscle  are  never  divorced  in  the  action  of 
healthy  higher  animals  and  in  healthy  men.  They  should 
not  be  divorced  in  the  education  of  the  child."  .  . . 

It  is  clear  that  physical  training,  in  the  largest  sense, 
must  play  an  important  part  in  the  making  of  the  "New 
China."  The  questions  involved  in  her  uplift  are  most 
largely  physical  questions.  The  personal,  domestic,  and 
public  observance  of  the  laws  of  health  and  life  is  a 
physical  question;  the  combating  of  that  terrible  scourge, 
tuberculosis,  is  a  physical  question;  the  checking  of  the 
fearful  infant  mortality  is  a  physical  question;  etc.  .  . . 

The  progress  which  has  been  made  in  physical  training 
in  China  must  be  viewed  in  the  light  of  the  fact  that 
physical  exercise  for  its  own  sake  has  had  no  part  in  the 
national  life  of  China  for  centuries.  It  has  been  consid- 
ered improper  for  a  Chinese  gentleman  to  indulge  in  it. 
The  popular  conception  of  a  Chinese  scholar  has  been 
that  of  a  man  with  a  great  head,  emaciated  body,  and 
hollow  chest,  sitting  and  contemplating  the  problem  of 
life  by  thinking  dissociated  from  doing.  Until  ten 
years  ago  athletics  were  almost  unknown.  When  for- 
eigners were  seen  playing  football  the  Chinese  were  greatly 
puzzled,  and  wanted  to  know  how  much  these  men  were 
being  paid  for  cutting  up  such  foolish  antics,  conceiving 
it  as  out  of  the  question  that  any  one  would  work  so  hard 
without  being  well  paid  for  it.  All  that  is  rapidly  being 
changed.  Physical  training  is  changing  China's  concep- 
tion of  a  gentleman.  The  ideal  of  all-round  manhood, 
well-balanced  in  its  physical,  mental,  and  spiritual  as- 
pects, is  rapidly  gaining  ground.* 

Could  all  China's  children  today  be  taught 
this  ideal,  the  task  would  be  far  easier  than  it 
will  be  when  they  have  reached  adult  life. 

*  "Physical  Training  for  the  Chinese."    M.  J.  Exner,  M.D. 


The  Child  at  School  159 

The  story  of  the  Missionary  School  for  Boys  in  Shod>tio 
Srinagar,  Kashmir,  is  as  thrilling  as  a  novel,  Ka8hmir-" 
and  illustrates  to  a  remarkable  degree  how  body, 
mind,  and  soul  must  be  trained  and  disciplined 
and  developed  in  order  to  realize  the  ideal  of  the 
Principal,  the  Rev.  C.  E.  Tyndale-Biscoe,  who 
says,  "We  are  making  citizens,  of  what  sort  re- 
mains to  be  seen.  But  we  hope  without  waver- 
ing that  these  citizens  will  be  Christian  citizens, 
for  Christ  is  our  ideal."  Some  of  the  difficulties 
are  thus  described: 

"To  teach  the  three  R's  in  Kashmir  is  easy  work. 
The  boys  are  willing  to  squat  over  their  books  and 
grind  away  for  as  many  hours  a  day  as  nature 
makes  possible.  To  get  an  education  means 
sedentary  employment  cum  rupees.  And  that 
to  the  Kashmiri  is  living. 

"But  to  educate  is  a  very  different  matter.  To 
make  men  of  a  thousand  or  more  boys  who  care 
nothing  for  manliness;  among  whose  ancestors 
for  hundreds  of  years,  chicanery,  deceit,  and 
cruelty  had  been  the  recognized  and  honored  paths 
to  success,  while  generosity  and  honesty  had  been 
the  mark  of  a  fool;  to  try  to  quicken  and  develop 
the  good  in  such  boys, — boys  coming  from  impure 
homes,  squatting  in  unclean  rows,  with  bent  backs 
and  open  mouths — was  flatly  pronounced  folly 
by  many  a  visitor  to  Kashmir."* 

The  story  tells  how  boxing,  swimming,  rowing, 

*  "The  Athletic  Method  in  Kashmir,"    Henry    Forman  in  Out- 
took,  Sept.  24,  1910. 


.     160  The  Child  in  the  Midst 

and  gymnastics  are  required  of  the  students  as  a 
most  necessary  and  vital  part  of  their  education, 
and  how  they  are  trained  to  be  proud  of  using 
these  accomplishments  in  helping  others.  By 
the  time  a  Brahmin  boy, — they  are  almost  all 
Brahmins  in  this  school, — has  saved  a  child  from 
drowning,  rescued  a  family  of  despised  sweepers 
from  the  roof  of  their  flood-swept  house,  delivered 
a  poor  woman  from  being  beaten,  and  helped 
clean  up  the  streets  and  alleys  of  a  city  during  a 
cholera  epidemic,  he  has  received  an  education 
such  as  no  books  in  the  world  can  give  him,  and 
Kashmir  is  one  step  nearer  to  the  Kingdom  of 
Heaven. 
"grea!n£ear-  "Train  not  thy  child,"  says  Emerson,  "so  that 

sonaiity."  ^  fae  age  0f  thirty  or  forty  he  shall  have  to  say, 

'This  great  work  could  I  have  done  but  for  the 
lack   of   a   body.' "      Elizabeth    Harrison,   after 
/quoting  Emerson,  adds,  "Is  not  this  carelessness 
|as  to  health  one  of  the  ways  in  which  we  are  not 
^conserving  the  forces  that  make  for  righteousness 
]  and  truth,  one  of  the  ways  in  which  we  are  neg- 
lecting to  build  up  'a  great  personality'  in  our 
1  children?"* 

Up  to  this  point  our  study  of  The  Child  in  non- 
Christian  lands  has  shown  that  the  missionary 
must  touch  the  home  life,  the  customs  and  ideals 
handed  down  from  remote  ancestors,  the  play  and 
work  and  education  and  physical  development 

*  "Mountain   Tops  and   Valleys    of   Humanity,"   Child   Welfare 
Magazine,  Jan.,  1913. 


8  a  « 

H  .5  -= 


The  Child  at  School  161 

of  the  child,  in  order  to  give  him  his  inalienable 
rights,  while  in  the  next  chapter  we  shall  dwell  on 
his  right  to  know  of  Jesus  Christ,  the  children's 
Friend.  It  may  seem  to  the  reader  (as  it  does 
to  the  writer)  that  the  chapters  overlap  one 
another  in  spite  of  the  heroic  effort  to  treat  each 
subject  by  itself.  But  most  of  us  find, — do  we 
not? —  that  it  is  a  bit  difficult  to  attend  to  the 
spiritual  culture  of  our  boys  when  they  are 
clamoring  to  go  out  and  play  ball,  or  to  get  our 
little  girls  to  tell  what  they  learned  at  school, 
when  they  are  hungry  for  their  dinner.  The 
mother  must  train  all  parts  of  her  child's  nature 
by  attending  to  the  need  that  is  uppermost  at 
the  time, — the  missionary  must  do  the  same  for 
her  foster  children,  and  the  woman  at  home, 
behind  the  missionary,  has  to  recognize  the  same 
inseparable  inter-relation  of  body,  mind,  and  soul 
in  the  little  ones  of  whom  she  is  studying.  Our 
divisions  into  "subjects"  must  be  more  or  less 
artificial.  However,  to  this  particular  subject 
of  "The  Child  at  School"  belong  naturally  two 
more  matters  which  must  be  touched  on  briefly. 

When  the  Turkish  girl  has  learned  to  read,  when  The  need  for 

good  literftj-ura., 

six  thousand  boys  have  annually  been  trained  ' 
in  that  great  chain  of  Anglo-Chinese  schools 
started  by  the  Methodists  in  Malaysia,  when 
Korean  children  have  acquired  a  taste  for  reading 
and  study,  where  are  they  to  find  suitable,  in- 
teresting books?  The  Cyclopedia  of  Education 
pays  a  wonderful  tribute  to  what  one  Book  has 


162  The  Child  in  the  MicJst 

done  for  Korea,  saying  that  "the  translation  of 
the  Bible  into  Korean  and  its  rapid  distribution, 
and  revivals  marked  with  habitual  study  of  the 
Bible,  compelled  many  to  learn  the  alphabet  to 
master  a  sacred  library  so  rich,  and  has  con- 
stituted a  national  school  of  intelligence  and 
culture."  But  other  books  than  the  Bible  must 
be  translated  and  written  in  order  to  give  clean, 
interesting,  wholesome  literature  to  the  children 
of  countless  thousands  who  never  had  any  use  for 
a  literature  for  themselves.  As  Miss  Lilian 
Trotter  of  Algiers  says, — "  Those  who  have  been 
patiently  toiling  over  the  schooling  of  Moslem 
girls  and  women  begin  to  feel  that  the  powers 
of  reading  gained  in  school  days  should  be  used  as 
a  means  to  an  end,  not  left  to  lapse  in  the  first 
years  that  ensue  for  want  of  following  up.  Letters 
from  the  whole  reach  of  the  Moslem  world  give  the 
same  refrain, — the  girls  drop  their  reading  largely 
because  there  is  nothing  published  that  interests 
them.  The  few  upper  class  women  who  read, 
read  little  but  newspapers  and  French  novels. 
Could  not  some  one  who  understands  child  minds 
work  out  bright  beginnings  for  the  use  of  their 
waking  powers  in  stories  and  pictures  with 
colored  lettering  and  borders?  Easterns  must 
have  color  to  make  them  happy!"* 

Here  is  a  call  to  missionary  work  for  some  one 
who  never  dreamt  that  her  particular  literary 

*  "Daylight  in  the  Harem." 


The  Child  at  School  163 

and  artistic  talents  are  absolutely  needed  today 
by  the  children  of  the  East. 
The  second  matter    mentioned    above  is  the  I°(j"?™f„ 

training  in 

need  for  industrial  training.  Great  progress  ^™g 
has  been  made  in  this  respect  in  recent  years,  but 
much  more  progress  is  needed,  and  trained  teachers 
and  suitable  equipment  are  required.  As  a 
missionary  in  Persia  says  when  urging  that  more 
industrial  training  be  given  the  school  girls, — 
"A  woman  may  be  able  to  read,  but,  if  unable 
to  bake  or  prepare  a  good  meal,  her  husband 
will  not  care  if  she  reads  about  the  Bread  of 
Life.  She  may  play  the  organ,  but,  if  she  cannot 
wash,  mend,  make  the  children's  clothes,  and 
make  a  happy  home,  he  will  have  little  interest 
in  hearing  her  play  or  sing  'The  Home  over 
there.' " 

There  is  abundant  testimony  to  prove  that  Amlrica°n 
America  is  already  doing  great  things  in  the  line  ^cation* 
of  missionary  education.     Here  is  the  testimony 
of  a  traveler  and  newspaper  man. 

The  number  of  mission  schools  and  colleges  supported 
by  Americans  with  American  money  is  nearly  as  large  as 
that  of  all  the  schools  conducted  by  the  missionaries  of 
all  other  countries  combined.  We  have  approximately 
10,000  schools  in  lands  that  are  not  under  our  flag  and 
from  which  we  receive  not  a  cent  of  revenue. 

If  a  man  in  quest  of  material  for  an  American  educa- 
tional exhibit  were  to  sail  out  of  San  Francisco  Bay  with 
a  phonograph  recorder,  he  would  come  up  on  the  other 
side  of  Sandy  Hook  with  a  polyglot  collection  of  records 
that  would  give  the  people  of  the  United  States  a  new  con- 
ception of  their  part  in  the  world's  advance  toward  light. 


164 


The  Child  in  the  Midst 


Languages 
used. 


Where  shall  we 
put  the  empha- 
sis? 


His  audience  might  hear  a  spelling  class  recite  in  the 
tuneful  Hawaiian  tongue  or  listen  to  Moros,  Tagalogs, 
and  Igorrotes  reading  from  the  same  "McGuffey's 
Reader."  A  change  of  records  might  bring  the  sound  of  little 
Japanese  reciting  geography,  or  of  Chinese  repeating  the 
multiplication  table  in  a  dozen  dialects.  Another  record 
would  tell  in  quaint  Siamese  the  difference  between  a 
transitive  or  an  intransitive  verb,  or  conjugate  the  verb 
"to  be"  in  any  one  of  the  languages  of  India.  One  might 
hear  a  professor  from  Pennsylvania  lecturing  on  anatomy 
to  a  class  of  young  men  in  the  ancient  kingdom  of  Darius; 
or  a  young  woman  from  Massachusetts  explaining  the 
mysteries  of  an  eclipse  to  a  group  of  girls  in  Constanti- 
nople; or  a  Princeton  man  telling  in  Arabic  the  relation 
between  a  major  and  a  minor  premise.  And  when  the 
audience  had  listened  to  all  this  and  to  "My  country,  'tis 
of  thee"  in  Eskimo  and  in  Spanish,  the  exhibit  of  American 
teaching  would  have  only  begun.* 

One  American  Mission  Board  alone  (the 
Presbyterian)  uses  the  following  languages  and 
dialects  in  its  educational  institutions: — Arabic, 
Armenian,  Beng,  Bulu,  English,  Fang,  French, 
German,  Hainanese,  Hakka,  Hindi,  Italian, 
Japanese,  Korean,  Laos,  Mandarin  (and  many 
dialects  in  our  eight  China  missions;  the  dialects 
of  China  are  as  diverse  as  the  languages  of 
Europe),  Marathi,  Mpongwe,  Persian,  Portuguese, 
Punjabi,  Sanscrit,  Siamese,  Spanish,  Syriac, 
Tagalog,  Turkish,  Urdu,  Visayan.** 

But  in  spite  of  all  that  is  being  done,  we  con- 
tinue to  make  our  plea  for  the  little  children. 
Whatever  emphasis  may  be  laid  on  the  need  for 

*  "The  Land  of  the  White  Helmet,"  E.  A.  Forbes  (Revell.) 
**  "Educational  Work  of  the  Bd.  For.  Miss,  of  the  Pres.  Ch." 


The  Child  at  School  165 

boarding  schools,  colleges,  normal,  and  indus- 
trial training  schools,  let  us  remember  that  those 
who  are  taught  while  small  will  make  the  most 
hopeful  students  in  these  more  advanced  schools, 
and  the  best  workers  in  the  future. 

(How  quickly  and  easily  and  naturally  the  little  SSfid*1* 
ones  learn  of  Jesus,  the  children's  Friend,  and  chrbt.11  to 
their  relation  to  Him,  we  have  already  seen 
illustrated  in  the  kindergarten  work  of  Japany 
A  little  six-year-old  Greek  boy  in  Syria,  who 
had  attended  the  missionary  kindergarten,  spent 
the  summer  in  the  mountains  and  became  dread- 
fully wild  and  profane.  On  his  return  to  school 
the  teacher  asked  why  he  had  been  so  naughty. 
He  replied;  "I  didn't  pray  during  the  summer. 
Now  I'm  going  to  pray  and  be  a  good  boy." 

To  Mrs.  Pitcher  of  Amoy  we  owe  the  following 
incident : — 

A  scholar  in  one  of  our  schools,  whose  relatives  were  all 
idol  worshippers  and  very  ignorant,  was  led  to  give  her 
heait  to  Jesus,  and  became  a  most  active  little  Christian; 
but  one  day  she  was  taken  very  ill  with  plague,  and  during 
her  last  hours  she  was  so  happy  singing  hymns  she  had 
learned  at  school  and  telling  her  parents  and  old  grand- 
mother about  the  Home  beyond,  where  she  would  soon 
be  with  the  Lord,  that  all  that  heathen  family  were  led 
by  this  dying  child  to  believe  in  a  God  of  love,  who  could 
so  comfort  His  little  child,  and  save  her  from  the  terror 
and  dread  of  the  many  evil  spirits  in  whom  they  had 
blindly  trusted.* 


*  "A  Little  Child  Shall  Lead  Them."     Worn.  Bd.  For.  Miss.  Ref. 
Ch.  Am. 


Mission  school 
children  in 
after-life. 


^ 


166  The  Child  in  the  Midst 

This  chapter  cannot  end  before  we  follow  into 
their  later  life  some  of  the  children  whose  early 
and  perhaps  whose  only  education  was  received 
in  missionary  schools. 

"The  home  in  Syria  whose  mother  was  taught 
in  a  school  can  always  be  distinguished  at  a 
glance,  whether  it  belongs  to  the  Protestant 
community  or  to  one  of  the  old  Christian  sects. 
Neatness  and  good  taste  prevail,  the  children 
are  more  carefully  trained,  the  members  of  the 
family  work  for  each  other's  benefit.  One  of 
our  school  girls,  who  was  married  to  an  unedu- 
cated man,  told  us  years  after;  'Letter  by  letter 
I  taught  him  to  read,  figure  by  figure  I  taught 
him  arithmetic,  and  then  I  drew  him  down  upon 
his  knees  and  word  by  word  I  taught  him  to 
pray.'  "* 
Af°rica°f  West  From  tne  sPirit  of  Missions  we  quote  the 
following  about  the  boys  at  Cape  Mount,  West 
Africa : — 

"These  people  can  be  reached  by  Christianity 
best  in  their  childhood,  before  superstitions,  be- 
lief in  the  Gregre,  or  the  influence  of  the  life  of  a 
Mohammedan  has  become  grafted  into  their 
lives.  If  allowed  to  grow  up  in  their  native 
villages  they  often  become  leaders  of  tribal  wars, 
and,  unknowingly,  men  of  the  vilest  character. 
In  one  tribe  from  which  several  boys  are  at  the 
mission,  the  mother  tattoos  curious  marks  on  the 
forehead  of  her  babe,  in  order  that  if  during  war 

*"Home  Life  in  Syria,"  Elfreda  Post,  Worn.  Pres.  Bd.  For.  Miss. 


The  Child  at  School  167 

he  is  captured  and  in  after  years  she  becomes  able 
to  redeem  him  from  slavery,  she  may  be  able  to 
recognize  her  own  child.  With  the  influence  and 
training  of  a  Christian  mission,  even  though 
the  boys  go  back  to  native  life,  they  do  not  go 
back  to  all  of  its  vileness,  and  one  can  soon  dis- 
tinguish between  them  and  the  un-Christianized 
heathen." 

It  takes  faith  and  hope  and  love  and  a  vision 
far  into  the  future  to  teach  boys  like  these.  But 
it  pays,  and  the  "bread  cast  on  the  waters"  is 
often  found  again  in  most  unlikely  places,  such  as 
those  described  in  a  letter  from  Mr.  W.  C. 
Johnson  of  West  Africa: — 

"Everywhere  I  find  in  the  village  schools  sources 
of  Christian  influence.  In  one  village  where  I 
stayed  all  night,  all  of  the  boys  and  all  but  two 
of  the  women  were  Christians.  This  was  entirely 
the  work  of  Christian  school  boys.  In  another 
place  a  young  man  told  me  that  there  were  only 
two  young  men  in  the  community  who  were  not 
trying  to  lead  Christian  lives.  This  too  was  the 
work  of  the  Christian  school  boys." 

A  little  Mohammedan  girl  attended  for  a  very  ^J^KS" 
few  months  the  mission  day  school  in  a  near-by  ™0mpikheJd.ao" 
city  street.  Her  cruel  step-mother  persecuted 
her  bitterly,  throwing  her  school  books  on  the 
floor  and  trampling  them  under  foot  to  show  her 
contempt  of  Christian  learning.  Some  kind 
friend  at  the  school  gave  the  child  forty  cents, — 
unheard-of  wealth   to  the  little  one, — and   the 


168  The  Child  in  the  Midst 

missionary  suggested  that  a  teacher  should 
help  the  child  spend  it  for  something  she  greatly 
needed  before  the  mother  could  take  it  away. 
"No,"  said  the  little  girl,  "I  don't  want  to  spend 
it  in  that  way.  I  want  to  give  it  all  to  the  Lord 
and  then  I  shall  have  treasure  in  heaven.  I 
learned  that  at  school. "  She  was  married, — 
without  any  choice  in  the  matter, — to  a  man 
who  had  known  Christians  and  was  favorable  to 
them,  and  the  little  wife  lived  a  consistent  Chris- 
tian life  and  died  trusting  in  Christ  as  her  Saviour. 
Only  a  few  months  at  school  for  a  few  hours  of 
each  day,  but  they  made  all  the  difference  for 
time  and  for  eternity!  How  many  children  are 
having  such  an  opportunity  because  of  us  and 
our  missionary  society?  How  many  are  deprived 
of  the  opportunity  because  it  is  "not  our  busi- 
ness" to  help  them  realize  the  truth  of  what  was 
said  in  days  of  old, — "Wisdom  is  the  principal 
thing,  therefore  get  wisdom.  The  fear  of  the 
Lord  is  the  beginning  of  wisdom." 

QUOTATIONS 
EDUCATIONAL  WORK  IN  SIAM 

American  missionaries  were  the  pioneers  in  true  edu- 
cational work  in  Siam.  They  gave  to  Siam  its  first  real 
school.  They  aided  Siam  in  establishing  the  Government 
Educational  system,  and  encouraged  the  Department  of 
Education  to  establish  normal  training  schools.  They 
introduced  the  printing  press  into  Siam,  made  the  first 
Siamese  type,  and  taught  Siam  the  art  of  printing. 

American  missionaries  gave  Siam  its  first  newspaper  in. 


The  Child  at  School  169 

the  Siamese  language,  and  gave  the  first  Geography, 
Astronomy,  Anatomy,  and  Physiology,  Chemistry,  Arith- 
metic, and  Geometry  in  the  Siamese  language. 

When  the  King  of  Siam  made  the  first  move  for  the 
establishment  of  a  school  system  over  Siam,  he  placed  an 
American  missionary  at  the  head  of  the  work.  The 
present  Minister  of  Education  was  at  one  time  pupil  of 
a  missionary,  later  on  he  became  fellow  student  of  one 
of  the  missionaries  in  Sanscrit,  and  still  consults  the 
missionaries  on  educational  questions  and  literary  subjects. 

In  the  past  twenty-five  years  the  Presbyterian  Mission 
at  Siam  has  received  more  money  from  the  Siamese  king, 
princes,  nobles,  and  common  people  for  the  maintenance 
of  educational  work,  than  it  has  received  from  the  Presby- 
terian Church  in  America.  (Educational  Work  of  the  Bd. 
For.  Miss,  cf  the  Pres.  Ch.) 

PERSIAN    SCHOOLS 

An  English  boy  learns  to  read  his  own  language  first, 
and  does  not  always  go  on  to  a  foreign  language.  A 
Persian  boy  learns  to  read  a  foreign  language  first,  and 
does  not  always  go  on  to  his  own  language.  When  a 
little  Persian  boy  goes  to  school  he  is  given  a  big  Arabic 
book,  with  a  great  many  long  words  in  t,  and  he  is  not 
taught  how  the  words  are  spelt,  but  is  told  what  they  are, 
and  made  to  repeat  them  from  memory,  pointing  to  each 
word  in  the  book  as  he  says  it,  and  gradually  he  gets' some 
idea  of  which  word  is  which.  .  .  The  Mohammedans 
think  that  reading  the  Koran,  quite  apart  from  under- 
standing it,  is  a  very  good  action,  so  the  little  Persian 
boys  work  away  at  it,  and  they  do  not  think  it  hard 
lines  because  all  men  and  big  boys  began  in  the  same  way, 
so  it  seems  the  natural  thing  to  do.  And  perhaps  it  is 
a  little  consolation  to  know  that  when  they  reach  certain 
points  they  will  be  given  sweets.  One  little  boy  who  was 
asked  how  far  he  had  got  in  the  Koran,  said  that  he  had 
just  got  his  first  sweets. 


170  The  Child  in  the  Midst 

Having  finished  the  Koran,  our  little  Persian  boy  goes 
on  to  Persian  books.  These,  too,  he  studies  in  much  the 
same  way  as  he  did  the  Koran,  but  it  is  more  useful, 
because  now  he  understands  what  he  reads.  After  plod- 
ding through  the  Koran  it  is  a  pleasant  change  for  little 
Ghulam  Husain  to  turn  to  the  "War  between  the  Cats 
and  Mice"  or  the  "Hundred  Fables."  Later  on  he  reads 
the  poems  of  Hafiz  and  Sa'adi,  and  other  great  Persian 
poets. 

The  Persians  do  not  apparently  think  much  of  their 
own  system  of  education,  for  they  are  always  laughing 
at  their  schoolmasters.  They  have  a  story  of  a  charvadar, 
or  muleteer,  one  of  whose  mules  strayed  one  day  into  a 
school.  It  was  quickly  driven  out,  and  the  muleteer 
claimed  damages  to  the  extent  of  half  the  value  of  a 
mule.  The  schoolmaster  indignantly  asked  on  what  he 
based  his  claim.  The  muleteer  turned  to  the  crowd  which 
had  gathered  to  listen  to  the  argument.  "My  beast," 
said  he,  "went  into  his  school  a  mule  and  it  has  come  out 
a  donkey."  You  see,  a  donkey  counts  half  a  mule  in 
caravan  traveling,  just  as  child  counts  half  a  person  in 
train  traveling. 

When  a  boy  is  caned  in  punishment  he  lies  on  his  back 
and  holds  out  his  feet  instead  of  his  hands.  Sometimes 
his  feet  are  held  in  a  kind  of  stocks  while  he  is  caned  across 
the  soles.  They  call  it  "eating  sticks"  or  "eating  wood." 
(Mrs.  Napier  Malcolm  in  "Children  of  Persia.") 

EDUCATION,  BULU  TRIBE,  AFRICA 

There  is  no  more  extraordinary  feature  of  the  work 
among  the  Bulu  than  the  readiness  with  which  this  little 
forest  creature  submits  himself  to  the  discipline  of  school. 
From  a  heritage  of  liberty  he  comes  to  knock  at  the 
Mission  door  and  to  set  his  little  jiggered  feet  upon  the 
new  way  of  order.  He  who  came  and  went  at  will  keeps 
the  commandments  of  the  school  drum.  He  who  has 
been  bred  to  inter-tribal  hatred  eats  out  of  the  pot  with 


The  Child  at  School  171 

his  hereditary  enemy.  He  earns  his  food  in  all  honor  under 
the  Mission  law  of  labor.  He  permits  himself  to  be 
"tied"  with  "ten  tyings"  to  a  standard  of  conduct  which 
is  the  reverse  of  his  racial  standards. 

In  the  rude  school  house,  with  his  alphabet  before  him, 
or  in  the  open,  cutlass  in  hand,  he  performs  daily  acts 
of  order  and  discipline,  and  these  little  tasks  are  regen- 
erative. His  little  sister  is  beside  him  and  subjected  to 
the  same  process.  The  presence  of  the  Mission  in  a 
Bulu  community  is  a  great  blessing  to  a  little  girl.  It  is 
a  kind  of  sanctuary  and  a  police  patrol.  I  cannot  think 
that  you  would  like  to  know  from  what  perils  it  saves 
her. . .  Such  little  girls,  following  in  the  paths  after  their 
brothers,  have  come  to  own  a  slate,  to  own  a  primer,  to 
ply  a  needle,  to  sleep  at  night  in  peace  under  a  Christian 
thatch  and  in  innocent  company.  ("Other  Children" 
by  Jean  Mackenzie,  Worn.  For.  Miss.  Soc.  Pres.) 

A  GIRLS'  SCHOOL  IN  THE  KURDISH 
MOUNTAINS 

Ever  since  coming  here  I  have  talked  to  both  men  and 
women,  as  occasion  offered,  about  the  folly  of  not  allow- 
ing girls  to  learn  anything.  When  I  felt  pretty  sure  of 
two  little  girls,  I  announced  one  Sunday  to  the  women 
who  were  gathered  in  my  room  that  on  Thursday  I  should 
begin  a  girls'  school  for  any  who  cared  to  come.  What 
was  my  surprise  and  delight  on  Thursday  to  have  one  of 
the  Kashas  (Old  Church  pastors)  come  bringing,  not  two 
but  four  little  girls  who  promptly  walked  up  to  me  and 
kissed  my  hand.  The  next  day  another,  who  had  not 
heard  of  the  school  the  first  day,  came.  After  three  days 
one  girl  disappeared.  On  Saturday  I  visited  her  home 
and  found  they  were  keeping  her  to  work,  and  this, 
according  to  my  idea  of  the  circumstances,  seemed  very 
unnecessary,  for  I  keep  them  only  two  hours  a  day  at 
present.  When  I  expostulated  with  the  father,  he  said, 
"Why  should  I  take  the  trouble  to  let  her  go  to  school, 


172  The  Child  in  the  Midst 

when  after  a  little  time  I'll  marry  her  into  some  other 
family?"  Here  girls  are  married  very  young,  at  twelve 
years,  many  of  them.  All  I  could  say  was  of  no  avail. 
During  all  this  conversation  poor  Rachel  sat  between 
us,  the  tears  running  down  her  face,  and  saying  repeatedly, 
"Father,  let  me  go."  The  father  was  too  selfish  to  be 
moved  by  her  pleadings.  (Letter  from  Mrs.  E.  W. 
McDowell.) 

BIBLE  READING 
TEACHING  THE  CHILDREN 
Deut.  11:18-21  with  2d  Tim.  1:5  and  3:14-17. 

The  natural,  constant  teaching  of  God's  commandments 
in  the  daily  life  of  the  home  by  parents  and  grandparents 
will  prepare  the  children  to  lead  prosperous,  successful, 
useful  lives.  What  is  learned  in  childhood  "furnishes" 
the  man  or  woman  for  life. 

"Therefore  if  to  the  goodness  of  nature  be  joined  the 
wisdom  of  the  teacher  in  leading  young  wits  into  a  right 
and  plain  way  of  learning,  surely  children,  kept  up  in 
God's  fear,  and  governed  by  His  grace,  may  most  easily 
be  brought  well  to  serve  God  and  country  both  by  virtue 
and  wisdom."     (Roger  Ascham  in  the  year  1570.) 

PRAYER 
O  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  Thou  Child  of  Bethlehem,  bless, 
we  beseech  Thee,  the  children  gathered  in  Christian 
schools;  may  they  be  truthful,  pure,  obedient,  and  ever 
ready  to  do  their  duty  in  that  state  of  life  to  which  Thou 
shalt  be  pleased  to  call  them,  Who  livest  and  reignest  with 
the  Father  and  Holy  Ghost,  one  God,  world  without  end. 
Amen. 

QUESTIONS 

1.  Give  five  reasons  for  multiplying  kindergartens  and 
primary  schools  in  non-Christian  lands. 

2.  In  the  missionary  Forward  Movement  in  China, 
should  the  emphasis  in  advance  educational  work  be 
put  on  primary  or  on  secondary  education? 


The  Child  at  School  173 

3.  Give  the  reasons  for  and  against  an  increase  in 
Missionary  educational  work  in  Japan.  What  is  your 
personal  opinion  on  the  subject? 

4.  Should  the  missionary  teacher  aim  to  secure  a  large 
number  of  scholars,  or  to  give  more  time  and  personal 
attention  to  a  few?     Give  your  reasons  for  your  answer. 

5.  If  you  were  facing  a  school  of  fifty  little  children 
who  had  absolutely  no  idea  of  education,  cleanliness, 
manners,  morals,  or  Christianity,  what  would  you  try 
to  teach  them  during  the  first  week?  How  would  you 
go  about  it?  (This  takes  it  for  granted  that  you  know 
their  language.) 

BIBLIOGRAPHY.    CHAPTER  IV. 

The  School  and  the  Child,  John  Dewey. 

Stages  in  Missionary  Education,  T.  H.  P,  Sailer,  Wom- 
an's Work,  Sept.,  1912. 

Christian  Missions  and  Social  Progress,  J.  S.  Dennis. 
(Revell)  vol.  ii. 

"On  the  Education  of  Backward  Races,"  E.  W.  Coffin, 
Pedagogical  Seminary,  March,  1908. 

Report  on  Educational  Work  of  Bd.  For.  Miss,  of  Pres.  Ch. 

Daylight  in  the  Harem,  Van  Sommer  and  Zwemer, 
(Revell.) 

Children  of  Persia,  Mrs.  Napier  Malcolm,  (Oliphant, 
Anderson  &  Fcrrier.) 

Education  of  Girls  in  Persia,  Moslem  World,  Oct.,  1912. 

The  Education  of  the  Women  of  India,  M.  G.  Gowan, 
(Revell.) 

Modern  India,  Sir  J.  D.  Rees,  (George  Allen  and  Sons.) 

The  Athletic  Method  in  Kashmir,  Henry  Forman,  Out- 
look, Sept.  24,  1910. 

Village  Life  in  China,  Arthur  H.  Smith,  (Revell.) 

The  Education  of  Chinese  Women,  Margaret  Burton. 

Possibilities  of  the  Kindergarten  in  China,  L.  Pearl 
Boggs,  Child  Welfare  Magazine,  Feb.,  1913. 


174 


The  Child  in  the  Midst 


"The  Opportunity  and  Need  for  the  Mission  School  in 

China."     F.   L.   Hawks  Pott,  D.D.,  Inlerril  Review 

of  Missions,  Oct.,  1912. 
Report  of  the  Kindergarten  Union  of  Japan. 
Fifteen  Years  among  the  Top- Knots,  Mrs.  Underwood, 

(Am.  Tract  Soc.) 
The    Land   of  the   White   Helmet,  Edgar  Allen  Forbes, 

(Revell.) 

LEAFLETS 
Into  a  New  Life 
Kwuli,  a  South  Sea  Maid 
The  Story  of  Aghavnitza 
The  Children's  Gardens 
The  Story  of  the  Imadegawa 

Kindergarten 
The  Cesarea  Kindergarten 
Coral  Island  Brownies 


Woman's  Board  of  Mis- 
sions of  the  Congrega- 
tional Church. 


Ling  Te's  Letter 


The  New  Persia 


Our  Investments  in  India 
Schools  in  the  Arcot  Mission, 

India 
Hindu  Girls'  School  in  Arcot 

Mission 
Key  to  Hindu  Homes 
Educational  Work  in  Japan 

From  Kindergarten  to  Col- 
lege 

A    Peep    into    Yokohama 
Day  Schools 

A  School  Day  at  Aoyama 

Luchmi 


Woman's  Foreign  Mission- 
ary Society  of  the  Pres- 
byterian Church. 

Board  of  Foreign  Missions 
of  the  Presbyterian 
Church. 

Woman's  Board  of  For- 
eign Missions  of  the  Re- 
formed Church  in  Amer- 
ica. 


Woman's      Foreign      Mis- 
sionary   Society    of    the 
Methodist   Episcopal 
Church. 


The  Child  at  School  175 

How  Orthodox  Moham-  Board  of  Foreign  Missions 
medans  Educate  a  of  the  Reformed  Church 
Child  in  America. 

Messages  to  Mass.  from  Black- 

mer  Home,  1912  Woman's  Universalist  Mis- 

Story  of  Matsu  Koyama  sionary  Society  of   Mas- 

Midori  Kindergarten  eachusetts. 

Concerning  the  Blackmer        Woman's     National     Mis- 
Home  sionary  Association,  Uni- 
versalist. 


CHAPTER  V. 

The  Child  at  Worship 
"Suffer  the  little  children  to  come  unto  Me." 


Children  worshiping — The  child  at  worship 
in  Thibet — In  India — In  Mohammedan  Lands — 
In  Africa — Religious  needs  greater  than  all 
others — The  place  of  the  child  in  non-Christian 
religions — In  the  Koran — In  the  Hindu  Vedas  and 
Shastras — Confucianism  and  Christianity — Fail- 
ure of  non-Christian  religions  to  influence  lives 
for  righteousness — Religious  acts  and  their  results 
to  children — Temple  girls  of  India — Heathen 
mothers  and  their  dead  children — Only  the  Bible 
gives  the  child  a  place — The  motive  for  teaching 
the  children  about  Christ — The  means  to  be  used 
— Sunday-Schools — Christian  Endeavor  Societies 
— The  power  of  God's  Word — Christian  hymns 
— Obstacles  to  bringing  children  to  Christ — 
"After  many  days" — Our  great  privilege. 


CHAPTER  V. 

THE  CHILD  AT  WORSHIP 

"Suffer  the  little  children  to  come  unto  Me." 


J^ 


What  wonderful  pictures  flash  before  the  mind  ggg^1  wor" 
as  one  repeats  the  words,  "The  Child  at  Worship" ! 
The  picture,  familiar  to  childhood,  of  the  boy    , 
Samuel,  kneeling  in  the  temple  with  folded  hands   I 
and  uplifted  eyes;  the  picture   on   the  nursery  / 
wall  of  vested  choir  boys  or  earnest-faced  children 
singing    praises    in   the    sanctuary;    the    bowed 
heads  of  little  ones  in  the  primary  room  at  Sun- 
day-School, while  with  hushed  voices  they  sing 
their  prayer  song;  the  hour  far  back  in  childhood 
when  you  knelt  at  your  mother's  knee;  or  the 
sweet  moment  when  your  sleepy  baby  cuddled 
in  your  arms  and  learned  to  lisp,  "Now  I  lay 
me."     All   that   is   sweetest,    purest,    holiest   in 
childhood    seems    to    find    full    expression    and 
highest   reality  as  we  see  the    child  at  worship, ' 
for  "except  ye  turn  and  become  as  little  children, 
ye  shall  in  no  wise  enter  into  the  kingdom  of 
heaven,  ...  for  their  angels  do  always  behold 
the  face  of  my  Father  which  is  in  heaven." 


180 


The  Child  in  the  Midst 


The  Child  at 
Worship  in 
Thibet. 


The  Child  at 
Worship  in 
India. 


The  Child  at  Worship!  Far  off  in  distant 
Thibet  today  thousands  of  children  are  praying 
morning,  noon,  and  night,  joining  their  parents 
in  the  constant  repetition  of  one  six-syllabled 
sentence,  "Om  mani  padme  Hum"  ("Om!  the 
Jewel  in  the  Lotus!  Hum"!)  This  prayer  they 
are  taught  from  earliest  childhood  to  use  as  "a 
panacea  for  all  evils,  a  compendium  of  all  knowl- 
edge, a  treasury  of  all  wisdom,  a  summary  of 
all  religion."  It  is  engraved  on  the  outside  of 
metal  cylinders,  written  on  rolls  within  rolls  of 
paper  inserted  into  the  cylinders,  which  are  held 
in  the  right  hand  and  whirled  round  and  round 
like  a  child's  toy, — each  revolution  storing  up 
merit  to  the  worshipper.  But  alack!  if  the 
careless  boy  whirls  the  prayer  cylinder  in  the 
wrong  direction,  i.  e.,  not  with  the  sun,  he  is  adding 
to  the  debit  side  of  his  account,  and  the  more 
zealously  he  "prays,"  the  less  good  will  his  pray- 
ers do  him.*  "They  think  they  shall  be  heard 
for  their  much  speaking." 

The  Child  at  Worship  in  India!  "All  the  way 
up  the  bank  they  are  killing  and  skinning  their 
goats.  You  look  to  the  right  and  put  your  hands 
over  your  eyes.  You  look  to  the  left,  and  do  it 
again.  You  look  straight  in  front  of  you  and 
see  an  extended  skinned  victim  hung  from  the 
branch  of  a  tree.  Every  hanging  rootlet  of  the 
great  banyan-tree  is  hung  with  horrors, — all 
dead  most  mercifully,  but  horribly  still.  .  .  . 

*  Told  in  "Buddhism,"  by  Monier-Williams.     (Macmillan.) 


The  Child  at  Worship  181 

"We  see  little  children  watching  the  process 
delightedly.  There  is  no  intentional  cruelty, 
for  the  god  will  not  accept  the  sacrifice  unless 
the  head  is  severed  by  a  single  stroke.  But  it  is 
most  disgusting  and  demoralizing.  And  to  think 
that  these  children  are  being  taught  to  connect 
it  with  religion! 

"With  me  is  one  who  used  to  enjoy  it  all.  She 
tells  me  how  she  twisted  the  fowls'  heads  off  with 
her  own  hands.  I  look  at  the  fine  little  brown 
hands,  and  I  can  hardly  believe  it.  'You,  you, 
do  such  a  thing!'  And  she  says,  'Yes;  when  the 
day  came  round  to  sacrifice  to  our  family  divinity 
my  little  brother  held  the  goat's  head  while  my 
father  struck  it  off,  and  I  twisted  the  chickens' 
heads.     It   was   my   pleasure.'  "* 

Truly,  "the  dark  places  of  the  earth  are  full 
of  the  habitations  of  cruelty!" 

The  Mohammedan  Child  at  Worship!  From  ^a^chiid" 
the  minaret  of  the  Sunni  Mosque  or  the  roof  of  afc  WorehiP- 
the  Shi'ite  Mosque  sounds  the  call  to  prayer. 
Children  of  seven  or  older  are  supposed  to  join 
their  elders  in  obeying  the  summons  five  times 
a  day, — in  the  early  dawn,  at  noon,  two  hours 
before  sunset,  at  sunset,  and  two  hours  later. 
The  religious  law,  however,  provides  that  no 
child  shall  be  beaten  for  neglecting  his  prayer 
until  he  is  ten  years  of  age. 

Praying,  however,  is  not  as  easy  a  task  for  the 
Mohammedan  lad  as  for  his  Thibetan  cousin. 

*  "Things  as  They  Are,"  Amy  Wilson  Carmichael.     (Revell.) 


182  The  Child  in  the  Midst 

He  must  first  wash  his  face,  hands,  and  arms, 
feet,  and  legs,  learning  which  side  of  the  face, 
which  hand  and  foot  to  wash  first,  whether  the 
arms  should  be  stroked  from  the  wrist  to  the 
elbow  (.r  in  the  opposite  direction.  His  prayer 
will  not  count  before  the  great  "Allah"  if  the 
ablutions  are  not  correct.  Then  he  must  learn 
the  words  of  the  prayers,  and  these  are  in  Arabic, 
which  three-fourths  of  the  Mohammedan  children 
of  the  world  cannot  understand.  Turning  toward 
Mecca,  he  must  stand,  kneel,  and  bow  himself 
with  his  forehead  to  the  ground,  at  just  the 
proper  intervals  during  the  prayer.  At  the  age 
of  twelve  he  begins  to  observe  the  month  of 
Ramazan,  and  his  nine-year-old  sister  must  do 
the  same,  when  from  sunrise  to  sunset  no  morsel 
of  food  or  drop  of  drink  may  cross  their  lips. 
"Is  such  the  fast  that"  I  have  chosen?  wilt  thou 
call  this  a  fast  and  an  acceptable  day  unto 
Jehovah?"  With  deep  insight  into  the  truth 
has  Mrs.  Malcolm  said: — 

"Here  again  we  see  Mohammed  giving  his 
people  what  we  may  call  'nursery  rules/  treating 
them  as  children,  while  our  Master  expects 
us  to  grow  up  so  that  we  can  arrange  these  matters 
for  ourselves.  The  very  fact  that  the  detailed 
rules  of  Mohammedanism  are  binding  through 
life  shows  that  the  Mohammedan  is  not  expected 
to  grow  up  as  we  understand  growing  up."* 

*  "Children  of  Persia,"  Mrs.  Napier  Malcolm.     (Oliphant,  Ander- 
son, &  Ferrier.) 


The  Child  at  Worship  183 

Once  more  the  Child  at  Worship,  this  time  in  cJJIdSJwor. 

the  African  jungle!  "Ancestor-worship  is  the  8hip- 
highest  form  of  African  Fetishism, — The  usual 
fetish  is  the  skull  of  the  father,  which  the  son 
keeps  in  a  box.  The  father  occasionally  speaks 
to  the  son  in  dreams,  and  frequently  communi- 
cates with  him  by  omens.  He  helps  him  in  all 
his  enterprises,  good  and  evil,  and  secures  his 
success  in  love,  in  hunting,  and  in  war.  All 
those  who  have  skulls  are  a  secret  society,  which 
is  powerful  to  rule  and  to  tyrannize  over  others. 
Young  boys  are  initiated  into  this  society  by 
rites  and  ceremonies  that  are  revolting.  ...  In 
the  mild  ceremony  of  the  more  civilized  Fang 
towns,  the  boy  who  is  to  be  initiated  is  made 
very  drunk  and  taken  blindfolded  to  the  bush, 
to  a  place  set  apart  for  the  use  of  the  society. 
The  ceremony  continues  several  days.  In  one 
part  of  it  the  bandage  is  removed  from  his  eyes 
at  midnight,  a  low  fire  is  burning,  which  gives  a 
feeble  light,  and  he  finds  himself  surrounded  by 
members  of  the  society  with  faces  and  bodies 
frightfully  distorted,  and  all  the  skulls  of  their  y 
ancestors  exposed  to  view,  together  with  the 
heads  of  persons  who  have  recently  died.  Some 
one  asks  him  what  he  sees.  He  replies  that  he 
sees  only  spirits,  and  solemnly  declares  that  these 
are  not  men.  .  . 

"Further  up  the  river,  a  boy  during  initiation 
is  usually  placed  for  several  days  in  a  house  alone, 
after  being  made  to  look  so  long  at  the  sun  that 


184 


The  Child  in  the  Midst 


Religious  needs 
greater  than 
all  others  in 
non-Christian 
lands. 


sometimes  he  faints,  and  when  he  is  taken  into 
the  house  he  cannot  at  first  see  anything.  Mean- 
time the  door  is  closed,  and  they  all  go  away. 
Gradually  he  sees  things  around  him,  and  at 
length  discovers  opposite  him  a  corpse,  in  an 
early  state  of  decomposition.  He  is  kept  there 
day  and  night  during  the  ceremony.  The  men 
visit  him  and  subject  him  to  all  sorts  of  indigni- 
ties, in  order  to  impress  him  with  the  necessity 
of  absolute  obedience  to  the  society.  .  .  .  They 
believe  that  the  skull  of  the  father  or  other 
ancestor,  when  it  has  been  properly  prepared, 
becomes  the  residence  of  the  ancestor.  The  son 
.  .  .  will  keep  the  skull  comfortably  warm  and 
dry,  occasionally  rubbing  it  with  oil  and  red- 
wood powder,  and  will  feed  it  bountifully."  * 
Our  hearts  are  touched  by  the  child  in  its  help- 
/  lessness,  by  the  suffering  and  sorrow  of  neglected 
little  ones,  by  the  agonies  of  child  wives  and 
widows,  and  the  yearning  cry  for  teachers  and 
oks,  but  how  can  we  endure  it  when  all  that  is 
sweetest  and  holiest  and  best  in  the  beautiful 
child  heart  is  defiled  and  polluted  in  the  name  of 
religion;  when  senseless  repetition  in  an  unknown 
tongue  takes  the  place  of  the  trustful  words,  "Our 
Father";  when  sticks  and  stones,  ancestral 
tablets,  spirits  and  devils  are  worshipped  by 
those  to  whom  the  Christ  cries  out  in  yearning 
love,   "Suffer  the  little  children  to  come  unto 

*  "The  Jungle  Folk  of  Africa,"  R.  H.  JtfUUgan.     (Revell.) 


The  Child  at  Worship  185 

me"?  If  our  hearts  are  touched,  not  to  the 
breaking  point,  but  to  the  acting  point,  then 
these  horrors  must  cease,  and  the  children  will 
be  taught  to  worship  aright,  and  Christ  "shall 
see  of  the  travail  of  His  soul  and  shall  be  satisfied." 

"The  people  in  the  country  from  which  you 
have  come  have  a  religion  of  their  own,  is  it  not 
good  enough  for  them?  Why  should  you  insult 
them  by  trying  to  foist  your  religion  upon  them?" 
These  and  many  similar  questions  meet  the  ™ec&lkieinf 
missionary  on  furlough,  and  cause  her  more  woe  re°ii£kma!8tian 
than  does  many  a  hard  experience  on  the  mission 
field.  The  best  answer  to  such  questions  is  to 
induce  the  questioners  to  study  carefully  what 
the  non-Christian  religions  have  to  say  regarding 
children,  and  the  direct  result  of  their  systems 
on  child  life. 

A  careful  search  in  the  Koran,  the  sacred  book  In  the  Koran- 
of  the  Mohammedans,  is  rewarded  by  finding 
several  passages  strictly  enjoining  kindness  and 
justice  to  orphans,  and  a  set  of  minute  regulations 
regarding  inheritance  in  which  children,  parents, 
husbands,  and  wives  shall  share,  prefaced  by 
these  words;  "God  hath  thus  commanded  you 
concerning  your  children,"  and  followed  up  later 
by  the  remark;  "Ye  know  not  whether  your 
parents  or  your  children  be  of  greater  use  unto 
you."   (Sura  IV.) 

"Children,"  says  Rev.  S.  M.  Zwemer,  "are 
scarcely  mentioned  in  the  Koran;  of  such  is  not 
the  Kingdom  of  Islam," 


186 


The  Child  in  the  Midst 


In  Hindu 
Vedas. 


In  Hindu 

Shastras. 


"The  Hindu  Vedas  enjoin  that  by  a  girl,  or  by 
a  young  woman,  or  by  a  woman  advanced  in 
years,  nothing  must  be  done,  even  in  her  own 
dwelling  place,  according  to  her  mere  pleasure; 
in  childhood  a  female  must  be  dependent  on 
(or  subject  to)  her  father;  in  youth,  on  her  hus- 
band; her  lord  being  dead,  on  her  sons;  a  woman 
must  never  seek  independence."  (Manu  V.  158.) 

"The  Hindu  Shastras  have  made  no  provisions 
of  affection  and  regard  for  a  daughter.  She  is 
viewed  by  them,  as  far  as  her  parents  are  con- 
cerned, merely  as  an  object  to  be  'given  away/ 
and  that  as  soon  as  possible.  She  is  declared  by 
them  to  be  marriageable,  even  in  her  infancy,  to 
a  person  of  any  age;  and  of  course  without  her  own 
choice  or  intelligent  consent.  .  .  According  to 
the  letter  of  the  law,  the  parents  are  not  to  sell 
their  daughters,  but  they  may  receive  valuable 
gifts,  the  equivalent  of  a  price,  on  her  behalf." 
(Manu  III,  51.)* 

The  code  of  Manu  further  teaches  that  by 
honoring  his  mother  a  son  gains  the  terrestrial 
world,  by  honoring  his  father,  the  ethereal, — 
intermediate, — and  by  assiduous  attention  to  his 
preceptor,  even  the  celestial  world  of  Brahma.** 

How  different  are  the  words  of  the  Apostle 
Paul  regarding  the  relation  between  parents  and 
children.     "Fathers,  provoke  not  your  children 


*  "The  Wrongs  of  Indian  Womanhood,"  Mrs.  Marcus  B.  Fuller. 
(Revell.) 

**  Quoted  by  E.  Storrow  in  "Our  Sisters  in  India."     (Revell.) 


The  Child  at  Worship  187 

that  they  be  not  discouraged.  Children,  obey 
your  parents  in  the  Lord.  Honor  thy  father 
and  thy  mother,  which  is  the  first  commandment 
with  promise." 

The  Right  Reverend  Logan  H.  Roots,  Bishop  SdcS& 
of  Hankow,  has  illustrated  so  forcibly  the  dif-  ity- 
ference  in  the  practical  working  out  of  the  pre- 
cepts of  Confucianism  and  Christianity,  that  it 
is  well  worth  while  to  quote  him  at  length. 

In  conversation  with  a  group  of  Chinese  gentlemen 
some  time  ago,  I  made  the  remark  that  outside  the  Jewish 
and  Christian  religions  there  was  no  serious  recognition  of 
the  inherent  dignity  of  children,  and  that  no  sage  had 
ever  made  a  statement  comparable  to  that  of  our  Lord. — 
"Suffer  the  little  children  to  come  unto  me  and  forbid 
them  not,  for  of  such  is  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven."  Such 
a  remark  as  this  on  my  part  would  have  elicited  scarcely 
any  interest  a  few  years  ago.  The  warm  discussion  it 
aroused  this  time  was  a  sign  of  the  new  life  that  is  now 
stirring  among  the  Chinese.  The  keenest  of  these  gentle- 
men were  in  sympathy  with  Christianity,  but  they  were 
all  inclined  to  look  upon  Confucianism  as  a  real  prepara- 
tion for  Christianity,  and  one  after  another  brought  forth 
sayings  of  the  Confucian  sages  which  they  thought  could 
be  reasonably  compared  to  that  of  Christ. 

They  quoted  the  praises  of  King  Wen  in  the  "Great 
Learning,"  where  it  is  said,  "As  a  father  he  rested  in 
kindness":  the  sayings  of  Confucius  himself  in  the 
"Analects"  as  to  his  own  wish:  "In  regard  to  the  young, 
treat  them  tenderly" ;  the  advice  to  a  ruler  in  "The  Great 
Learning";  "Act  as  though  you  were  watching  over  an 
infant";  and  the  fine  saying  of  Mencius:  "The  great  man 
is  he  who  does  not  lose  his  child's  heart."  .  .  . 

The  eagerness  of  these  gentlemen  in  discussing  the 
question  with  me,  to  find  a  place  for  their  worthies  in 


188  The  Child  in  the  Midst 

the  ample  folds  of  Christian  teaching  is  far  from  unwhole- 
some or  blameworthy,  especially  when  there  is  such  readi- 
ness as  they  showed  to  appeal  to  Christian  teaching  rather 
than  to  the  sages  as  their  standard,  and  to  prove  the 
greatness  of  their  sages  by  their  agreement  with  the 
Christ.  .  . 

My  purpose,  however,  is  not  to  give  an  exposition  of 
these  classical  gems,  but  rather  to  contrast  them  briefly 
with  certain  popular  Chinese  conceptions  of  childhood 
which  are  foolish  or  cruel,  but  which  these  lofty  sayings 
of  the  sages  have  been  powerless  to  correct. 

Should  a  child  fall  ill,  his  relatives  or  friends  very  likely 
remark,  "His  spirit  has  gone  seeking  another  incarnation." 
Or  some  one  suggests,  "Some  ghost  has  frightened  the 
child  to  the  point  of  losing  its  soul."  .  .  .  Should  the  child 
die,  the  parents  will  grieve,  as  surely  and  as  sorely  as 
parents  anywhere;  but .  .  .  they  will  be  told;  "Never  mind, 
the  child  was  misguided  to  your  home,  and  was  not  in- 
tended for  you."  Or,  "It  was  only  a  creditor  collecting  a 
debt  you  owed  in  a  former  existence."  Or,  "Don't 
grieve,  it  was  but  one  of  those  demon  spirits  that  always 
die  young."  .  .  . 

I  put  these  popular  sayings  beside  the  exalted  senti- 
ments of  the  Chinese  Classics,  not  to  disparage  the  sages, 
but  to  show  how  utterly  dark  the  popular  mind  is,  in 
spite  of  these  sayings  whi  ch  seem  so  full  of  light.  Is  not  the 
difficulty  that  the  sages  after  all  could  not  go  to  the  root 
of  the  matter?    They  knew  nothing  of  God  as  Father.* 

Failure  to  What  is  here  illustrated  of  the  failure  of  Con- 

mfluence  lives 

i°Jlrighteou8"  fucianivsm  to  influence  lives  toward  righteousness 
and  faith  is  true  of  the  other  non-Christian 
religions.  Even  the  young  Mohammedan  girl 
realized  the  power  and  claim  of  Christianity  as 
she  was  a  chance  listener  to  the  Gospel  story 

*  Spirit  of  Missions,  Feb.,  1912. 


nesa. 


ous  acts. 


The  Child  at  Worship  1 89 

while  a  missionary  toured  in  central  Persia.  "Why, 
lady,"  she  exclaimed,  "if  one  understands  clearly 
that  Book,  there  is  nothing  left  but  to  obey!" 

The  direct  results  of  the  way  children  are 
taught  to  worship  in  non-Christian  lands  deserve 
careful,  unprejudiced  study,  with  the  question 
constantly  in  mind,  "Is  this  religion  good  enough 
for  my  children,  or  for  those  in  whom  I  am 
interested?"  If  the  study  results  in  a  negative 
answer  to  the  question,  it  is  fair  to  ask  further, 
"Is  it  good  enough  for  any  children  in  the  whole 
wide  world?" 

What  should  be  the  results,  physical,  mental,  J^'Fidfe 
moral,  and  spiritual,  of  a  child's  religious  acts? 
Which  of  all  the  world  religions  produces  these 
results?  Study  Mohammedanism,  for  instance, 
of  which  we  have  already  noted  some  of  the 
religious  acts  expected  of  the  child.  These 
must  necessarily  inculcate  formalism,  thoughtless 
repetition,  deep-rooted  superstition,  and  the  idea 
that  God  can  be  appeased  and  sin  can  be  for- 
given through  certain  acts  unconnected  with  life 
and  character. 

"When  I  die,"  said  a  poor,  blind  Mohammedan 
girl,  "I  shall  be  visited  by  two  angels,  the  chief 
of  whom  will  make  an  examination  of  my  deeds, 
and  remind  me  of  everything  I  have  done,  and 
left  undone;  he  will  then  cut  off  a  piece  of  my 
shroud  and  record  upon  it  my  good  and  bad 
deeds,  and  attach  it  firmly  to  my  neck  with  a  piece 
of  rope.    If  my  good  deeds  outweigh  my  bad  ones, 


190  The  Child  in  the  Midst 

I  shall  go  straight  into  heaven.  If  my  bad  deeds 
outweigh  my  good  deeds,  my  intercessor  Mo- 
hammed will  easily  get  permission  for  me  to  enter 
heaven,  so  it  does  not  much  matter  how  I  live."* 
Mohammedan  The  annual  month  of  mourning  of  the  Shi'ite 
mourning.  Mohammedans  is  observed  by  children  as  well 

as  by  adults,  and  little  ones  with  their  heads 
covered  with  straw  or  ashes,  or  wearing  chains, 
are  borne  on  horseback  in  the  processions  that 
close  the  series  of  passion  plays.  A  missionary 
in  Persia  saw  a  mother  carrying  her  boy  of  five 
or  six  years  in  the  bloody  procession,  cutting 
his  head  with  a  curved  sword,  while  blood 
streamed  from  five  or  six  gashes.  Poor,  eager, 
zealous  mother,  trying  to  store  up  merit  for  her 
baby  boy  against  the  day  of  wrath! 
Fear  and  horror       Fear,  dread,  and  horror  are  inseparably  asso- 

ln  idol  worship.  ' 

ciated  in  the  minds  of  thousands  of  children  with 
the  worship  of  their  gods.  From  earliest  child- 
hood others  grow  so  naturally  into  the  forms  of 
ancestor,  idol,  and  spirit  worship  that  this  be- 
comes one  of  the  most  difficult  factors  in  leading 
them  into  Christianity.  From  the  Mission 
Day  Spring  we  quote  a  few  words  about  "how 
Chinese  children  worship." 

We  must  go  up  a  flight  of  wide  stone  steps  at  the  en- 
trance of  the  temple,  and  as  we  enter  we  shall  see  two  tall 
images  with  very  ugly  faces  and  brilliantly  painted  coats, 
which  are  called  "Guardians  of  the  Gate."  The  mothers 
bring  their  little  children  forward,  and  teach  them  to  clasp 

*  "Children  of  Enypt,"  Miss  Crowther,  (Oliphant,  Anderson  & 
Fernet.) 


The  Child  at  Worship  191 

their  hands  and  bow  down,  knocking  their  heads  to  the 
ground  as  they  worship  the  image.  If  it  is  the  first  time, 
the  children  are  afraid  and  often  say,  "Oh,  I  can't  do 
it,  I  never  can  do  it!"  Then  they  have  to  watch  closely 
while  their  mothers  once  more  show  them  how  to  worship. 
Afterwards  they  are  sometimes  rewarded  with  little 
presents,  which  they  are  told  have  been  given  them  by 
the  idol.  If  they  are  still  too  afraid  to  worship,  stories 
of  the  terrible  things  that  happen  to  people  who  do  not 
ask  the  protection  of  the  idols  are  repeated  to  them. 

Up  on  the  mountain  slopes  of  the  Hakone 
District  in  Japan,  is  the  great  children's  god, 
Jizo,  carved  centuries  ago  out  of  the  solid  rock. 
The  heathen  mother  has  been  taught  that,  when 
the  souls  of  her  little  children  pass  over  the  sullen 
stream  of  death,  they  must  be  saved  from  the 
clutches  of  a  cruel  hag  residing  on  the  banks. 
She  steals  their  clothes  and  forces  them  to  the 
endless  task  of  piling  stones  at  the  river  side. 
In  order  to  induce  Jizo  to  save  them  from  the 
hag,  the  weary  heathen  mother  climbs  the  steep 
paths  leading  to  the  children's  god,  and  there 
makes  her  supplication.  And  the  little  one  tied 
to  her  back  or  led  by  the  hand,  with  highly  strung 
nerves  and  weary  limbs,  shrinks  in  terror  at  the 
sight  of  the  ugly  idol,  and  at  the  stories  of  dire 
vengeance  which  will  befall  her  unless  she  wor- 
ships properly. 

Many  children  die  from  the  effects  of  fright  and  DMjh  u<m 
exposure  connected  with  religious  rites,  as  in  the  exposure, 
case  of  some  of  the  African  boys  whose  initiation 
into  ancestor  worship  was  described  above. 


192  The  Child  in  the  Midst 

Soui-stams.  Worse   then   all    the   results   yet   mentioned 

are  the  deep  soul-stains,  the  utter  ruin  of  all 
moral  and  spiritual  character,  which  fall  to  the 
lot  of  countless  thousands  of  innocent  children 
through  the  direct  influence  of  their  religion.  One 
longs  to  turn  away  from  scenes  like  these,  but  we 
mothers,  sisters,  and  daughters  of  Christian  homes 
cannot  be  honest  with  ourselves  and  with  our 
God,  unless  we  are  willing  to  know  things  as  they 
really  are,  in  order  to  help  to  make  them  as  they 
really  ought  to  be.  Such  conditions  exist  to  a 
larger  or  smaller  degree  in  many  lands,  but  to 
be  really  understood  in  their  baldest,  most  re- 
volting form,  it  is  only  necessary  to  visit  India. 
Bishop  Caldwell  says  that  "the  stories  related 
of  the  life  of  the  god  Krishna  do  more  than  any- 
thing to  destroy  the  morals  and  corrupt  the  imagi- 
nations of  Hindu  youth."  The  temple  girls, 
nautch  girls,  and  muralis  are  living  witnesses  to 
India's  need  of  a  pure  and  holy  religion. 

The  nautch-girl  often  begins  her  career  of  training 
under  teachers  as  early  as  five  years  of  age.  She  is  taught 
to  read,  dance,  and  sing,  and  instructed  in  every  seductive 
art.  Her  songs  are  usually  amorous;  and  while  she  is 
yet  a  mere  girl,  before  she  can  realize  fully  the  moral 
bearings  of  her  choice  of  life,  she  makes  her  debut  as  a 
nautch-girl  in  the  community. 

Khandoba  is  the  deity  of  the  Marathi  country  and  is 
popularly  believed  to  be  an  avator,  or  incarnation  of 
Shiva.  Muralis  are  girls  devoted  to  him  by  their  parents 
in  infancy  or  early  childhood.  Outside  the  main  entrance 
of  the  temple  court,  a  stone  column  stands  on  the  wall 
on  the  left  side.     It  is  about  three  feet  high,  and  on  the 


The  Child  at  Worship  193 

head  of  it  is  cut  a  filthy  design.  The  column  is  called  by 
the  name  of  Yeshwantrao.  .  .  He  it  is  who  gives  children 
to  barren  women.  .  .  It  is  to  this  image  the  poor  deluded 
women  promise  to  sacrifice  their  first-born  daughters  if 
Khandoba  will  make  them  mothers  of  many  children. 
Then  after  the  vow,  the  first-born  girl  is  offered  to  Khan- 
doba and  set  apart  for  him  by  tying  a  necklace  of  seven 
cowries  around  the  little  girl's  neck.  When  she  becomes 
of  marriageable  age  she  is  formally  married  to  the  Khanda 
or  daggar  of  Khandoba,  and  becomes  his  nominal  wife. 
Henceforth  she  is  forbidden  to  become  the  wedded  wife 
of  man,  and  the  result  is  that  she  usually  leads  an  infamous 
life,  earning  a  livelihood  by  sin.* 

The  stories  told  by  Amy  Wilson  Carmichael 
and  many  others  corroborate  and  emphasize 
the  facts  stated  by  Mrs.  Fuller,  and  tell  of  what 
the  British  Government  and  Christian  missions 
are  trying  to  do  to  counteract  and  stop  the 
monstrous  evil.  From  the  Missionary  Review 
of  the  World  for  February,    1913,  we    quote: — 

"A  bill  lately  introduced  into  the  viceroy's  £boiisihti°oun> 
legislative  council  by  Mr.  Dadabhai,  the  Parsee  temPle  »rb- 
member  of  that  body,  touches  upon  some  of 
oldest  and  darkest  social  evils  of  India.  It 
proposes  to  make  it  criminal  for  a  parent  or  other 
lawful  guardian  to  dedicate  a  girl  under  sixteen 
years  of  age  to  'the  service  of  a  deity,'  which 
always  means  dedicating  her  to  a  life  of  infamy, 
and  to  make  the  crime  punishable  with  ten 
years  penal  servitude.  It  prohibits  under  very 
severe  penalties,  the  practice  which  obtains 
whereby  priests  enter  into  temporary  alliance 

*  "The  Wrongs  of  Indian  Womanhood,"  Mrs.  Marcus  B.  Fuller. 
(Revell.) 


194  The  Child  in  the  Midst 

with  young  girls  thus  dedicated,  in  order  to 
initiate  them  into  the  life  of  professional  prof- 
ligacy." To  this  we  may  add  from  an  authori- 
tative source  that  in  1913  the  native  state  of 
Mysore  had  already  abolished  dancing  girls 
from  all  its  temples. 

While  the  British  Government  is  trying  to 
prevent  any  of  India's  daughters  from  being 
hereafter  ruined,  body  and  soul,  in  the  name  of 
religion,  what  is  being  done  for  the  thousands 
who  through  no  fault  of  their  own  have  already 
become  "the  servants  of  the  gods"?  Is  it  possi- 
ble to  do  anything  to  redeem  the  lives  of  these 
children  whose  earliest  memories  cluster  about 
the  most  hideous  forms  of  evil? 

BMHJMbftfi  Another  picture.    A  group  of  women  lounging  within 

gum.  ■  ■—  the  temple  enclosure  in  the  cool  shade  of  the  fragrant 
cork  trees.  A  beautiful  little  girl  of  five  years  is  running 
up  and  down  the  great  stone  steps  of  the  tank,  laughing 
and  playing.  Now  and  then  one  of  the  women  calls  the 
child  to  her  and  tries  the  effect  of  some  article  of  jewlery 
against  the  bright  little  face.  Little  Moothi,  the  Pearl 
of  the  Temple,  as  she  is  called,  is  full  of  life  and  happiness. 
Too  young  to  understand  the  sin  and  wrong  about  her, 
she  loves  the  bright  jewels  and  silken  garments,  the 
excitement  of  the  dancing  and  singing.  The  daily  exer- 
cise on  the  whirling  wheel  is  only  fun  for  her.  She  never 
grows  dizzy  and  falls  off  as  do  her  stupid  companions,  to 
be  beaten  by  cross  old  Ramana,  their  teacher.  "She  will 
bring  plenty  of  money  by  and  by,"  said  one  of  the  women 
to  Moothi's  mother.  "You  had  better  let  her  go  to  the 
Christian  school  in  the  village.  She  will  be  taught  to 
read  and  sing  without  any  expense  to  you,  and  there  is 
no  danger  of  her  remembering  what  she  hears  of  that 


The  Child  at  Worship  195 

foolish  religioD."  But  the  mother's  face  did  not  light  up 
in  response.  Sitting  in  her  little  hut  she  has  listened  to 
the  Gospel  as  it  was  told  to  a  group  of  outcast  women  who 
had  gathered  weekly  in  the  village  palim  on  the  other  side 
of  the  wall.  The  wonderful  story  had  penetrated  her 
dark  heart.  But  it  is  too  late  for  her.  She  is  too  old 
to  change,  but  oh,  that  her  little  Moothi,  her  beautiful 
one,  might  be  spared  the  life  of  sin  and  shame  to  which 
she  is  doomed  as  a  dancing  girl  devoted  to  the  service  of 
the  temple.  What  can  she  do?  Through  the  long  nights 
she  thought  and  thought,  until  finally  she  came  to  the 
decision  to  part  with  the  little  one  though  her  heart 
break.  One  night  she  took  the  child  with  a  little  bundle 
of  clothing  and  stole  away.  After  weary  miles  of  travel 
she  appeared  at  the  home  of  a  missionary  and  begged  her 
to  take  the  little  girl.  "I  give  her  to  you,"  she  said, 
"to  be  taught  your  religion,  and  to  be  your  child,  but  she 
must  never  know  who  her  mother  was."  She  laid  down 
twenty  rupees  which  she  had  saved  toward  her  support, 
and  disappeared,  leaving  no  clue  to  her  name  and  village. 
There  was  consternation  among  the  women  of  the 
temple  when  it  was  discovered  that  Moothi  was  gone, 
but  the  mother  gave  no  sign,  and  it  was  finally  concluded 
that  some  one  had  stolen  her  because  of  her  beauty,  and 
such  things  are  too  common  in  a  heathen  land  to  cause  a 
disturbance.  As  Moothi  grew  and  developed  into  a 
beautiful  Christian  woman  and  earnest  worker,  the 
missionary  often  wondered  whence  came  the  God-given 
trust  so  strangely  sent.  Now  and  then,  but  less  fre- 
quently as  the  years  pass  on,  a  woman,  growing  increas- 
ingly old  and  bent,  was  seen  near  the  school,  whom  they 
associated  with  Moothi,  but  no  one  knew  until  upon  her 
deathbed  she  sent  for  the  missionary  and  told  her  story. 
Only  a  heathen  mother,  degraded  and  heart-broken, 
parted  from  her  only  joy  in  life,  watching  hungrily  in  the 
distance  for  a  sight  of  the  loved  face.  Can  we  not  believe 
that  the  Christ  of  love  was  revealed  to  her  heart  also?  * 

*  "The  Sorrows  of  Heathen  Motherhood,"  Helen  D.  Newcomb. 


dead  children. 


196  The  Child  in  the  Midst 

What  Christian  mother  will  make  it  possible 
that  some  other  heart-broken  heathen  mother  may 
hear  the  Gospel  message,  and  may  find  a  place 
of  refuge  for  her  sweet,  innocent  child? 
SsaandnthSrth"  While  our  hearts  go  out  in  tenderness  to  the 
heathen  mother  deprived  of  her  living  child, 
what  can  we  do  or  say  to  comfort  the  mother 
whose  little  one  is  cold  in  death?  Our  statistics  of 
infant  mortality  in  Chapter  I  give  some  slight 
idea  of  the  vast  multitudes  of  mourning  mothers 
for  whom  there  is  no  hope,  no  knowledge  that, — 
"around  the  throne  of  God  in  heaven,  thousands 
of  children  stand;"  no  vision  of  Him  who 
"shall  gather  the  lambs  with  His  arm  and  carry 
them  in  His  bosom."  Nowhere  but  among 
Christians  do  hope  and  faith  and  self-control  and 
comfort  abide  in  the  house  Where  death  has 
come,  and  none  but  the  Christian  cemetery  is  a 
place  of  order  and  beauty  and  peace.  Among 
the  Thonga  Tribe  of  South  Africa,  the  mother 
who  loses  a  baby  is' considered  deeply  contami- 
nated with  the  defilement  of  death.  She  must 
bury  the  child  alone,  not  even  her  husband 
helping  her.  Mrs.  George  Heber  Jones  said 
recently  that  in  all  her  many  years  of  life  in 
Korea  she  had  never  seen  any  funeral  service 
for  a  child  of  non-Christians.  The  baby  is. 
buried  anywhere  at  the  back  of  the  house  as  a. 
dog  would  be,  or  put  up  in  the  branches  of  a. 
tree  for  the  vultures  to  find.  Do  the  mothers- 
have   hearts   and   feelings?    Listen   to   the   ex- 


The  Child  at  Worship  19? 

perience  of  Mrs.  U.  S.  G.  Jones  of  India,  and 
answer  the  question  for  yourselves. 

"I  went  into  a  Brahmin  home  where  several 
widows  were  gathered.  One  old  woman  with 
eyes  that  were  dimmed  from  much  weeping  said, 
peering  into  my  face,  'Yes,  it  is  the  same,  I  was 
sure  of  it.  You  came  here  some  ten  or  twelve 
years  ago,  and  told  us  how  when  your  beloved 
were  taken  from  you,  you  did  not  mourn  and  wail 
as  we  did.  When  my  daughter  died,  I  tried  to 
recall  what  you  had  said  about  another  life 
and  hope  beyond  the  grave,  but  I  could  not 
remember.  Tell  it  all  again  now.'  So  I  told 
her  again  of  our  glorious  hope  and  of  the  resurrec- 
tion. How  earnestly  they  all  listened!  Poor, 
poor  things!"* 

"The  Child  for  Christ"  must  be  the  watchword  fcya  ^S  V 
of  our  "organized  motherhood  for  the  children  of  l£  place-  * 

the  world."  The  Bible  is  the  only  sacred  book 
that  gives  the  child  a  place  of  importance.  Christ 
was  the  only  founder  of  a  religion  who  raised 
childhood  into  a  type  of  those  who  were  fit  to 
enter  His  Kingdom.  As  E.  G.  Romanes  says, 
"Tenderness  toward  child  life,  appreciation  of 
the  simplicity  and  the  helplessness  of  children, 
affection  of  parents  for  their  children,  and  children 
for  their  parents; — all  these  are  features  of  the 
Bible  which  the  most  superficial  reader  cannot 
fail  to  observe."** 

*  Woman's  Work,  July,  1912. 
**  Hastings  Bible  Diction  my. 


198 


The  Child  in  the  Midst 


The  motive  for 
teaching  the 
children  of 
Christ. 


The  means  to 
be  used. 


In  his  "Challenge  to  Christian  Missions," 
R.  E.  Welsh  utters  these  significant  words, — 

"Why  is  it  a  matter  of  urgent  duty  and  con- 
cern on  a  parent's  part  to  teach  his  child  the 
story  of  Christ  and  train  him  in  Christian  truth 
and  life?  .  .  What  is  the  parent's  motive?  .  .  . 
Simply  the  sharp  sense  of  the  value  of  Christ 
to  every  human  being,  young  or  old — the  per- 
ception of  the  child's  need  and  peril  if  he  does 
not  get  the  saving  power  of  Christ  upon  him; 
the  sense  of  the  native  worth  and  value  of  being 
a  Christian  in  soul  and  character;  the  desire  to 
lift  him  out  of  'the  natural  man'  to  'the  measure 
of  the  stature  of  the  fulness  of  Christ.'  If  that 
motive  be  not  strong  enough  to  inspire  us  with 
zeal  for  taking  the  blessing  of  Christ  to  the 
heathen,  then  Christ  has  still  much  work  to  do 
upon  us  to  make  us  Christian  in  mind  and 
spiritual  sympathy." 

If  it  is  our  duty  and  privilege  to  win  the 
children  of  the  world  to  Christ,  how  is  it  to  be 
done?  What  special  means  are  our  missionaries 
using  to  bring  about  this  result?  All  missionary 
work  for  children,  in  the  homes,  in  day  school 
and  boarding  school,  in  church  and  Sunday- 
School,  in  hospital  and  orphanage,  must  have  the 
great  two-fold  aim  ever  in  view, — to  win  the  child 
to  Christ,  to  train  the  child  for  Christ.  It  re- 
mains for  us  to  study  briefly  several  agencies  not 
yet  touched  upon,  that  have  been  greatly  blessed 
in  their  effect  upon  children  of  many  lands. 


The  Child  at  Worship  199 

First  in  the  list  of  these  child-winning  agencies  |chooiyetatia- 
stands  the  Sunday-School.  From  a  series  of  tios- 
statistics  appearing  in  the  January,  1913,  number 
of  the  Missionary  Review  of  the  World,  we 
take  the  following  figures,  concerning  Sunday- 
Schools  conducted  by  the  Protestant  Missionary 
Societies  of  the  world. 

Miss.  Soc's  U.  S.     Of  other 
&  Canada  Countries 

No.    Heathen    Children    bap- 
tized 1912 27,997  68,567 

No.  Sunday-Schools 19,230  11,375 

No.  Pupils  in  same 908,007  580,012 

Would  that  every  Christian  woman  who 
glances  at  these  figures  could  dimly  realize  what 
they  stand  for, — the  efforts,  the  time  and  energy 
and  love  expended,  the  disappointments  and 
trials,  the  encouragements  and  victories.  One 
must  never  be  discouraged,  one  must  never  lose 
faith  and  hope,  one  may  never  stop  sowing  seeds 
in  little  hearts,  even  though  the  work  seems  as 
small  and  insignificant  as  it  did  in  the  Japanese 
Sunday-School  at  Kawazoe. 

Every  Sunday  at  twelve  o'clock  the  children  begin  to  Japanese 
clatter  up  on  their  wooden  shoes  to  a  Sunday-School  schooh" 
which  does  not  begin  till  two  o'clock.  .  .  When  it  begins 
they  sing  hymns  vigorously  if  not  tunefully,  and  listen 
as  patiently  as  any  children  of  the  same  age.  The  nurse 
girls,  aged  ten  or  eleven,  come  with  babies  on  their  backs, 
and,  if  the  babies  remonstrate  too  vigorously,  they  are 
trotted  out  in  the  sunshine  for  a  breathing  space.  An 
average  of  forty  children  come  every  Sunday  to  hear  the 


200  The  Child  in  the  Midst 

Christian  stories,  and  often,  passing  on  the  street,  one 
hears  the  familiar  tune  and  unfamiliar  words  of  "Jesus 
loves  me."  One,  two,  or  more  Sunday- Schools  seem  like 
but  a  drop  in  the  bucket  in  a  town  of  twenty  thousand 
people,  but  we  can  only  hope  that  through  hymn,  or 
story,  or  picture,  or  card,  the  good  news  of  the  love  of 
God  may  be  spread  more  widely.* 

But  many  "drops"  fill  a  bucket,  and  some  day- 
Japan  is  going  to  feel  the  mighty  power  of  the 
children  who  have  been  taught  in  mission  Sunday- 
Schools.     Here  is  a  prophetic  instance : — ■ 
A  Sunday-  The  teachings  which  produce  the  sweetest  and  most 

School  rally  in  ......        ,       ,.  ,  .„ 

Japan.  beautiful  things  in  the  lives  of  children,  and  will  make 

them  the  truest  and  best  "soldiers  and  servants,"  are  those 
given  in  the  Sunday-Schools  which  are  multiplying  in 
Japan.  Therefore  there  is  no  work  better  worth  doing 
than  that  in  the  Sunday-Schools,  and  no  service  more 
valuable  than  that  of  the  missionaries  who  teach  the 
children  of  Japan.  .  .  On  the  Campus  of  the  Reformed 
Church  College,  Sendai,  there  was  held  last  summer  a 
union  gathering  of  the  Sunday-Schools  of  the  city.  Some 
of  them  were  Saturday  Sunday-Schools,  as  there  were  not 
hours  enough  on  Sunday  for  the  Christian  teachers  to 
instruct  all  those  who  are  eager  to  learn,  and  it  is  not 
unprecedented  for  two  or  three  Sunday-Schools  to  be 
taught  by  the  same  persons.  When  the  pupils  in  the 
Christian  schools  of  Sendai  came  together  they  were 
one  thousand  seven  hundred  strong.  An  eye-witness 
says : — 

"I  wish  you  could  have  seen  them!  Our  own  four  Sun- 
day-Schools furnished  one  hundred  and  fifty  of  the  number. 
It  did  my  heart  good!  Do  missions  pay?  Oh,  my,  no! 
One  of  our  students  in  the  training  school  is  the  direct 
result  of  the  Sendai  Sunday-School,   and   another   from 

j 
*  Spirit  of  Missions,  March,  1906, 


The  Child  at  Worship  201 

that  Sunday-School  enters  next  year.  And  to  hear  those 
one  thousand  seven  hundred  children  sing!  And  back 
of  that  great  gathering  was  the  story  of  long  and  patient 
labor,  days  of  constant  effort,  and  nights  of  discourage- 
ment." * 

With  such  a  view  of  the  value  of  the  Sunday-  sChooidwhh 
School  to  Japan,  it  is  interesting  to  note  that  in  £™$j£al 
May,  1913,  there  were  one  thousand  seven 
hundred  Protestant  Sunday-Schools  in  Japan, 
with  an  enrollment  of  about  100,000  pupils.  If 
the  question  is  asked,  Do  the  Sunday-Schools 
have  any  effect  on  the  lives  of  the  children? 
it  is  a  pleasure  to  answer  with  a  brief  extract 
from  the  personal  letter  of  a  new  missionary 
to  Japan. — 

"This  afternoon  a  lady  called  whose  mother 
belongs  to  the  nobility  and  has  older  ideals,  but 
her  father  is  American.  She  is  a  most  earnest 
Christian  and  has  done  a  great  deal.  She  has 
access  to  the  nobility's  children  and  is  forming 
a  Sunday-School,  but  she  has  many  discourage- 
ments. At  one  village  they  had  started  a  school 
of  two  hundred,  and  the  children  were  showing  its 
influence,  but  the  schoolmaster  feared  just  this 
and  so  managed  to  frighten  the  parents  that  all 
were  withdrawn.  This  village  was  built  in 
terraces  with  a  long  flight  of  stairs,  down  which 
many  blind  people  went.  The  boys  used  to  hang 
cords  across  so  as  to  trip  them.  But  now  they 
have  begun  to  take  these  poor  people  by  the 

* Spirit  of  Missions,  February,  1911, 


202 


The  Child  in  the  Midst 


A  Sunday- 
School  Parade 
in  Peking. 


A  Sunday- 
School  Union 
in  India. 


hand,  and  lead  them  down."  A  Sunday-School 
that  can  teach  such  practical  Christianity  to 
mischievous  boys  must  be  a  power  in  the  com- 
munity. 

In  October,  1911,  the  city  of  Peking,  China, 
witnessed  a  Sunday-School  parade  in  which  two 
thousand  children  took  part.  With  banners 
flying,  and  led  by  the  Methodists  with  six  hundred 
children  and  a  band,  the  parade  passed  through 
the  most  important  streets  of  the  city  to  a 
large  church  where  a  children's  mass  meeting 
was  held. 

A  noteworthy  "forward  movement"  was  under- 
taken by  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  in 
1913,  when  the  Rev.  Wallace  H.  Miner,  son  of 
a  missionary,  sailed  for  China,  to  become  a 
Sunday-School  worker  and  organizer  in  that  new 
republic.  His  work  will  be  to  assist  the  mis- 
sionaries in  promoting  the  work  of  the  Sunday- 
Schools,  to  instruct  native  preachers  in  methods 
of  Sunday-School  organization  and  adminis- 
tration, and  to  train  local  teachers  and  native 
field  workers,  introducing  modern  methods  into 
Chinese  Sunday-Schools  as  far  as  they  are 
adapted  to  Chinese  conditions. 

Would  that  India  had  more  men  like  the 
rich  coffee  planter  who  gives  his  services  to 
Christian  work,  and  who  travels  from  end  to 
end  of  India  organizing  Sunday-Schools.  The 
statistics  of  the  Sunday-School  Union  of  India 
are  deeply  significant,  as  is  also  the  fact  that 


The  Child  at  Worship  203 

there  is  such  a  Union.  "The  Sunday-School 
Union  of  India  has  a  membership  of  458,945, 
being  an  increase  of  37,866  on  the  previous 
year.  The  Union  stands  for  the  very  best  in 
Bible  instruction,  equipment,  and  management. 
It  publishes  10,000,000  English  and  vernacular 
pages  of  Scripture  illustrated  expositions,  nearly 
all  of  which  are  based  on  the  international 
syllabus.  To  meet  the  needs  of  Sunday-Schools 
in  fifty  languages,  there  are  about  fifty  editions 
of  'helps'  in  twenty  languages.  A  prominent 
feature  of  the  Union  is  that  it  stands  for  sal- 
vation through  Jesus  Christ,  and  membership 
in  the  church  to  which  it  belongs."* 

It  would  be  fascinating  to  visit  the  Sunday-  sun^iy-0*11 
Schools  in  various  lands,  and  to  hear  the  same  SchooL 
dear  children's  hymns  sung  in  many  languages 
by  black  children  and  white,  red,  and  brown. 
We  have  time  for  only  a  peep  at  an  Egyptian 
Sunday-School,  but  even  this  glimpse  shows 
how  naturally  and  inevitably  the  love  and  power 
of  Jesus  Christ  can  change  the  heart  and  life  of 
a  little  child. 

At  2  P.  M.  the  beating  of  the  bell  has  the  desired  effect, 
and  presently  there  rises  up  from  the  edge  of  the  river  a 
crowd  of  some  of  the  dirtiest  and  yet  some  of  the  prettiest 
little  boys  and  girls  you  ever  saw.  Nearly  every  little 
girl  carries  perched  on  her  shoulder  a  baby  brother  or 
sister.  They  rush  without  ceremony  into  the  compound, 
but  there  they  are  intercepted,  and  made  to  walk  quietly 
and  orderly  into  the  classes  provided  for  them. 

*  Missionary  Review  of  the  World,  January,  1911. 


204  The  Child  in  the  Midst 

A  kind  Syrian  nurse  from  the  Hospital  takes  her  place 
in  a  class  of  some  thirty  or  forty  girls,  and,  if  only  you  could 
peep  behind  the  scenes,  you  would  hear  such  sad  stories 
connected  with  the  lives  of  several  of  her  girls.  Some 
have  been  married  and  cast  aside  by  their  husbands  for 
some  trivial  fault,  and  then  how  glad  they  are  once  more 
to  find  their  way  back  to  school,  where  they  know  they 
are  loved  and  cared  for. 

A  blind  girl  sits  among  a  class  of  the  very  naughtiest 
but  sweetest  little  folk,  who  try  her  patience  to  the  utmost. 
A  kind  missionary  takes  another  class,  and  I  am  sure 
that,  although  she  is  accustomed  to  teaching  all  through 
the  week,  she  has  never  taught  such  pieces  of  humanity 
as  those  before  her.  Still  another  class  of  mischievous 
little  boys  is  taught  by  one  of  the  day-school  boys,  who 
sometimes  has  to  appeal  to  the  superintendent  to  restore 
order.  .  .  .  Now  the  bell  has  to  be  beaten,  gently  too, 
and,  after  much  noise,  all  shaggy  heads  are  bent  in  prayer, 
then  sentence  by  sentence,  the  Lord's  Prayer  is  said,  and 
a  very  elongated  "Amen"  comes  in  at  the  end.  Now 
three  rooms  are  occupied  instead  of  one,  for  if  all  the 
classes  were  kept  in  one  room  the  noise  would  be  deafening. 
What  are  all  those  dirty  little  bags  hung  around  the 
children's  necks?  Ah!  those  bags  contain  the  most 
precious  thing  the  children  have,  viz.,  an  old  Christmas 
card  which  serves  as  a  register.  If  by  some  unfortunate 
chance  that  ticket  gets  lost,  genuine  tears  form  a  stream- 
let down  the  troubled  little  face  of  the  owner,  for  he  or 
she  knows  it  is  just  a  mere  chance  if  the  superintendent 
will  relent  so  far  as  to  provide  another,  and  yet  without 
it  admittance  to  the  yearly  Christmas  tree  is  a  thing 
impossible. 

These  registers  are  marked  and  a  tiny  box  handed 
around  to  receive  many  little  widows'  mites,  for  although 
the  children  are  of  the  poorest,  we  try  to  teach  them  that 
it  is  more  blessed  to  give  than  to  receive.  And  now  we 
are  all  in  the  room  again,  and  a  time  is  spent  in  catechising 


The  Child  at  Worship  205 

the  whole  school  so  as  to  make  sure  they  have  been  listen- 
ing to  their  lesson.  The  story  had  been  told  of  the  ten 
lepers,  and  the  ingratitude  of  the  nine,  who  went  away 
without  saying  "thank  you."  Z.,  a  very  regular  member, 
looked  up  with  glowing  eyes,  and  said,  "I  would  very 
much  like  to  say  thank  you  to  Jesus  for  all  He  has  done 
for  me,  but  I  am  afraid  He  would  not  care  to  bend  His 
hand  from  heaven  to  let  a  little  girl  like  me  kiss  it."  .  .  . 
Another  little  girl  is  all  eagerness  to  speak.  Her  name 
means  "Cast  Out,"  and  when  her  turn  comes  she  says, 
"I  love  pickles,  oh!  so  much,  and  when  my  mother 
said,  'Go  to  the  market  and  bring  back  pickles  in  vinegar/ 
I  used  to  dip  my  fingers  into  the  vinegar  all  the  way 
home, — they  would  creep  into  the  basin  in  spite  of  my- 
self,— but  now  since  my  teacher  has  told  me  it  is  like 
stealing,  I  try  not  even  to  look  at  the  basin,  but  run  all 
the  way  home  with  it  to  my  mother."  * 

It  would  take  pages  to  tell  what  Junior  Chris-  christian 
tian  Endeavor  Societies,  Epworth  Leagues,  and  s"c1e^.r 
similar  organizations  are  doing  for  the  children 
of  Asia  and  Africa,  and  how  through  them  the 
children  of  Christian  households  are  being 
trained  to  live  and  work  for  Christ, — a  training 
which  most  of  their  parents  lacked  in  childhood. 
A  missionary  from  Japan  tells  how  a  little  fellow 
prayed  at  the  Christian  Endeavor  meeting,  "Oh 
God,  I  just  want  to  thank  you  for  the  good 
time  we  had  last  Saturday,  I  can  taste  it  yet; 
help  us  not  to  forget  what  we  promised  then." 

A  Junior  Endeavor  Society  in  the  Madura 
District  in  India  helps  to  support  a  Sunday- 
School  in  a  near-by  village,  the  children  bringing 

*  "Children    of    Egypt,"   L.  Crowther.     (Oliphant,   Anderson, 
&  Ferrier.) 


206  The  Child  in  the  Midst 

their  offerings  of  one  pie  each  (one  sixth  of  a  cent) 
with  noble  regularity.  In  one  boarding-school 
in  Persia,  four  or  five  Endeavor  Societies  flour- 
ished some  years  ago,  and,  when  the  girls  went 
home  for  their  vacations,  they  led  the  singing 
in  the  village  churches,  teaching  the  congrega- 
tions new  hymns  learned  at  school.  Each  girl 
saw  to  it  that  a  Christian  Endeavor  Society  was 
formed  in  her  village  during  the  long  summer 
vacation.  Often  the  school  girl  would  be  the 
only  member  of  the  Society  who  could  read,  but 
she  gathered  the  village  children  about  her,  and 
taught  them  to  repeat  Bible  verses,  sing  hymns, 
and  offer  simple  prayers,  and  a  great  deal  of 
training  and  teaching  can  be  accomplished  in  one 
summer  vacation! 
thfiible?r  °f  /  What  marvelous  power  there  is  in  the  Word 
of  God!  A  Mohammedan  boy  in  a  fanatical 
Persian  city,  which  had  often  been  visited  by 
colporteurs  and  missionaries,  went  one  day  to 
the  bazaar  where  he  saw  a  New  Testament  being 
torn  up  to  serve  as  wrapping  paper.  He  remon- 
strated with  the  shopkeeper,  and  finally  bought 
what  was  left  of  the  Book.  Through  its  influence 
both  he  and  his  mother  were  led  to  Christ.  In 
another  Persian  city,  the  missionary  holds  a 
Bible  lesson  for  boys  under  fifteen  every  Friday, 
when  they  do  not  have  to  be  at  work.  Picture 
cards  sent  by  thoughtful  friends  in  America  are 
earned  by  boys  learning  the  Lord's  Prayer,  the 
Ten  Commandments,  or  verses  from  the  Sermon 


The  Child  at  Worship  207 

on  the  Mount.  Some  of  the  boys  always  repeat 
the  lesson  at  home  to  their  mothers,  and  some 
say  openly,  "If  what  the  Bible  says  is  true,  the 
Mohammedan  religion  is  vain  and  useless." 
Truly,  "the  entrance  of  Thy  word  giveth  light." 
Do  American  children  prize  their  Bibles  as 
does  this  Korean  boy? 

Every  day  in  the  village  of  Nulmok  there  is  an  exodus  A  ??'eaBjy°ey 
of  small  boys  to  the  mountain  for  fuel.  Wood  being 
scarce,  it  becomes  necessary  for  each  household  to  furnish 
a  fuel  gatherer.  This  army  of  boys  is  winding  its  way 
to  the  mountains  some  five  miles  off.  Each  boy  has  tied 
to  his  jikcey,  or  rack  carried  on  his  back,  a  small  package 
of  rice.  This  is  his  dinner,  for  it  is  an  all-day  job.  As 
they  make  their  way  up  the  well-nigh  barren  slopes,  one 
boy  notices  that  his  friend  Kaiby  has  a  second  little  bundle 
tied  to  his  jikcey,  and  so  he  hails  him  to  know  why  he  is 
carrying  two  dinners. 

"Oh,  one  is  for  my  body,  and  the  other  is  dinner  for 
my  soul,"  he  replies. 

After  a  morning  spent  in  raking  over  a  small  area  of 
the  mountain,  each  boy  has  succeeded  in  getting  together 
his  bundle  of  dried  grass,  and  all  sit  down  beside  a  moun- 
tain brook  to  eat  of  their  dinner  of  cold  rice  and  a  relish 
of  greens  or  pickled  cabbage  in  season.  Soon  Kaiby  has 
finished  his  meal  and  is  untying  his  second  bundle;  taking 
out  a  book  he  begins  to  read  aloud,  slowly,  while  the  other 
boys  gather  around  to  hear.  It  is  about  a  great  Man, 
who,  when  the  people  wanted  to  make  him  king,  went  to 
the  mountain  to  pray. 

Day  after  day  at  rest  time  Kaiby  got  out  his  book  and 
read  from  it,  and  the  other  boys  were  interested.  About 
this  time,  Ki  Mun  Ju,  .the  Bible  Society  agent,  came 
again  to  the  -village  with  Bibles.  After  supper,  Kaiby, 
accompanied  by  several  other  boys,  asked  if  there  was 


208  The  Child  in  the  Midst 

not  a  smaller  copy  of  the  New  Testament,  as  a  number  of 
the  boys  wanted  to  buy  a  Bible,  but  their  only  oppor- 
tunity to  read  was  at  rest  time  on  the  mountain,  and  a 
smaller  copy  would  be  more  easily  carried.  Needless  to 
say,  the  colporteur  did  not  fail  to  bring  some  on  his  next 
trip,  and  now  many  of  the  boys  have  their  own,  and 
frequently  the  hymnbook  which  they  treasure  next  is 
tied  up  with  it.* 

Sffiffigff?  Korean  boys  are  not  the  only  ones  who  treasure 

the  hymnbook  and  love  to  learn  and  to  sing 
Christian  hymns.  The  missionary  who  can  play 
and  sing,  and  the  one  who  knows  enough  about 
music  to  translate  hymns  and  adapt  tunes,  has 
marvelous  opportunities  to  work  effectively  among 
children.  Miss.  Ford's  experiences  in  Palestine 
illustrate  the  truth  of  this: — 

"I  should  like  to  say  a  word  about  the  use  of 
the  organ.  We  are  able  sometimes  to  have  very 
large  Moslem  audiences  in  the  villages.  Scores 
of  boys  will  gather  around  to  hear.  When  we 
propose  to  teach  them  a  hymn  or  chorus  they 
eagerly  agree  to  learn.  The  subject  of  the  song 
is  always  salvation  in  Jesus  Christ,  and  the  way 
of  life  is  pointed  out.  We  often  hear  the  children 
afterward  singing  these  hymns  in  the  streets.  .  . 
God  has  given  us  large  numbers  of  little  children 
to  bring  to  Him.  They  learn  hymns  and  psalms, 
chapters  of  the  Gospels,  and  verses  from  the 
Bible  with  great  facility,  and  they  love  to  sing 
the  hymns.    Now  also  we.  can  use  with  profit, 

*  Over  Sea  and  Land,  April,  1913. 


The  Child  at  Worship  209 

large,  illustrated,  highly  colored  pictures  of  the 
life  and  teachings  of  our  Lord,  as  well  as  Old 
Testament  stories."* 

Lest  anyone  be  tempted  to  think  that  the  work  brifln^hii- 
is  always  easy,  that  one  has  but  to  sow  the  seed  Christ0 
in  order  without  further  work  and  prayer  to 
reap  a  bountiful  harvest,  it  is  but  fair  to  men- 
tion a  few  of  the  obstacles  that  missionaries  must 
constantly  meet  while  trying  to  win  children  to 
Christ.  Heredity,  age-long  custom,  supersti- 
tion, fatalism,  the  shackles  of  caste  and  prejudice, 
the  home  influences  that  so  quickly  counteract 
what  a  child  learns  during  a  few  brief  hours  at  a 
mission  compound, — all  these  and  many  other 
hindrances  must  be  reckoned  with  and  over- 
come. Miss  Carmichael  graphically  describes 
some  of  these  experiences  of  effort  and  disap- 
pointment in  India. 

"Often  we  hear  people  say  how  excellent  it  is,  ^l^^n  dia. 
and  how  they  never  worship  idols  now,  but  only  ?° ynXJments 
the  true  God;  and  even  a  heathen  mother  will 
make  her  child  repeat  its  texts  to  you,  and  a 
father  will  tell  you  how  it  tells  him  Bible  stories; 
and,  if  you  are  quite  new  to  the  work,  you  put 
it  in  the  Magazine,  and  at  home  it  sounds  like 
conversion.  All  this  goes  on  most  peacefully; 
there  is  not  the  slightest  stir,  till  something 
happens  to  show  the  people  that  the  doctrine 
is  not  just  a  creed,  but  contains  a  living  Power. 
And  then,  and  not  until  then,  there  is  opposition. 

*  Miss  M.  T.  Maxwell  Ford  in  "Daylight  in  the  Harem." 


210  The  Child  in  the  Midst 

In  one  village  there  was  a  little  Brahmin  child 
who  often  tried  to  speak  to  us,  but  was  never 
allowed.  One  day  she  risked  capture  and  its 
consequences,  and  ran  across  the  narrow  stream 
which  divides  the  Brahmin  street  from  the 
village,  and  spoke  to  one  of  our  band  in  a  hurried 
little  whisper,  'Oh,  I  do  want  to  hear  about 
Jesus!'  And  she  told  how  she  had  learned  at 
school  in  her  own  town,  and  then  she  had  been 
sent  to  her  mother-in-law's  house  in  this  jungle 
village,  'that  one,'  pointing  to  a  house  where 
they  never  had  smiles  for  us;  but  her  mother-in- 
law  objected  to  the  preaching,  and  had  threatened 
to  throw  her  down  the  well  if  she  listened  to  us. 
Just  then  a  hard  voice  called  her  and  she  flew. 
Next  time  we  went  to  that  village  she  was  shut 
up  somewhere  inside."* 
days"  many  Sometimes  God  grants  that  bread  cast  on  the 

waters  with  loving,  lavish  hand,  is  found  again 
after  many,  many  days.  Often  a  Bible  verse 
or  the  words  of  a  hymn,  or  the  recollection  of 
what  was  seen  and  heard  in  a  missionary  home, 
has  not  been  forgotten,  and  has  borne  fruit  in 
after  life.  "A  rich  Japanese  silk  merchant  sent 
for  the  missionaries  in  his  town,  and  entertained 
them  most  hospitably.  He  told  how  as  a  child 
he  had  attended  a  Sunday-School.  'Very  often,'- 
he  said,  'right  in  the  midst  of  my  business  the 
words  of  the  hymn,  "Jesus  loves  me,  this  I  know," 
come  to  me,  and,  try  as  I  may,  I  can't  get  them 

*  "Things  as  They  Are,"  Amy  Wilson  Carmichael.     (Revell.) 


The  Child  at  Worship  211 

out  of  my  mind.'  He  then  repeated  the  hymn 
from  beginning  to  end,  and  added,  'Though  I 
have  lived  my  life  without  religion,  I  feel  that  it 
is  the  most  important  thing  there  is,  and  I  want 
my  little  girl  to  be  a  Christian;  and  it  is  for  that 
purpose,'  he  added  emphatically,  'that  I  have 
placed  her  in  the  mission  school,  that  she  may 
become  a  Christian.'  " 

Do  we  realize  the  privilege  and  opportunity  2SJ? the 
that  is  ours  to  pray  and  give  and  go,  to  send  p^ss6- 
our  money  and  our  sons  and  daughters,  that 
the  children  of  many  Christless  lands  may  learn 
to  know  and  love  and  serve  the  children's  Friend 
while  they  are  young,  and  hearts  and  minds  are 
plastic  and  teachable?  Have  we  as  keen  an 
insight  into  the  great  truths  of  Christian  privilege 
as  had  the  little  Chinese  girl,  who,  after  being 
publicly  baptized,  was  asked  by  her  teacher, 
"Are  you  glad  of  the  privilege  of  attending  a 
school  where  you  can  hear  of  the  Lord  Jesus?" 
Quickly  she  responded,  "Are  you  not  glad,  teacher, 
that  you  are  in  China,  where  you  can  teach  of  the 
Lord  Jesus?"*  Yes,  ours  is  the  greater  privilege, 
and  we  must  see  to  it  carefully  that  we  do  not 
miss  any  part  of  the  joy  that  the  Master  has  in 
store  for  us.  Our  own  children  are  so  cunning 
and  lovable,  so  full  of  wonderful  possibilities, 
and  in  need  of  so  much  care  and  watchfulness, 
that  it  is  easy  to  forget  the  other  children  who 
also  need  our  love  and  help.     In  the  Saviour's 

*Told  in  Missionary  Review  of  the  World,  December,  1911. 


212  The  Child  in  the  Midst 

eyes  there  is  no  difference, — He  loves  and  cares 
for  all  children.  Shall  we  imitate  Him  in  this 
respect? 
dre£m.ionary's  A  weaiT  missionary  fell  asleep,  and  as  she  slept 
she  dreamed  a  dream.  A  message  had  arrived 
that  the  Master  was  coming,  and  to  her  was 
appointed  the  task  of  getting  all  the  little  children 
ready  for  His  arrival.  So  she  arranged  them  on 
the  benches,  tier  on  tier,  putting  the  little  white 
children  on  the  first  benches,  nearest  to  where 
the  Master  would  stand,  and  then  came  the 
little  yellow  and  red  and  brown  children  and 
far  back  on  the  farthest  benches  sat  the  black 
children.  When  they  were  all  arranged;  she 
looked,  and  it  did  not  seem  quite  right  to  her. 
Why  should  the  black  children  be  so  far  away? 
They  ought  perhaps  to  be  on  the  front  benches. 
She  started  to  rearrange  them,  but  just  as  all 
was  in  confusion,  the  children  stirring  around, 
and  each  trying  to  find  his  proper  place,  footsteps 
were  heard,  and  lo!  it  was  the  Master's  tread, 
and  He  was  coming  before  the  children  were 
ready.  Overcome  with  shame  and  confusion 
she  hung  her  head.  To  think  that  the  task  en- 
trusted to  her  had  not  been  accomplished  in 
time!  So  she  stood  while  the  footsteps  drew 
nearer  and  nearer,  till  finally  they  paused  beside 
her,  and  she  was  obliged  to  look  up.  And  lo! 
as  she  did  so,  and  her  eyes  rested  on  the  children, 
all  shades  of  color  and  difference  had  vanished, 
— the  little  children  in  the  Master's  presence  were 
all  alike! 


The  Child  at  Worship  21ft 

QUOTATIONS 

A  HEATHEN  BABY 

An  English  missionary  in  Swatow,  China,  heard  sounds 
of  bitter  weeping  by  the  wayside  one  night.  Looking 
for  its  source,  he  found  a  heathen  woman  bowed  over  a 
child's  grave,  upon  which,  according  to  the  local  custom, 
lay  an  overturned  cradle. 

A  heathen  baby, — that  is  all; — 

A  woman's  lips  that  wildly  plead; 
Poor  lips  that  never  learned  to  call 

On  Christ,  in  woman's  time  of  need! 

Poor  lips,  that  never  did  repeat 

Through  quiet  tears,  "Thy  will  be  done," 

That  never  knew  the  story'sweet 
Of  Mary,  and  the  Infant  Son. 

An  emptied  cradle,  and  a  grave — 
A  little  grave — cut  through  the  sod; 

O  Jesus,  pitiful  to  save, 

Make  known  to  her  the  mother's  God. 

O  Spirit  of  the  heavenly  Love, 

Stir  some  dear  heart  at  home  today, 

An  earnest  thought  to  lift  above, 
For  mother-hearts  so  far  away. 

That  all  may  know  the  mercy  mild 
Of  Him  who  did  the  nurselings  bless: 

The  heathen  and  the  homeborn  child 
Are  one  in  that  great  tenderness. 

(Clara  A.  Lindsay  in  Woman's  Work.) 

CASTE  IN  INDIA 

In  the  village  of  the  Wind  a  young  girl  became  known 
as  an  enquirer.  Her  Caste  passed  the  word  along  from 
village  to  village  wherever  its  members  were  found,  and 


214  The  Child  in  the  Midst 

all  these  relations  and  connections  were  speedily  leagued 
in  a  compact  to  keep  her  from  hearing  more.  When  we 
went  to  see  her,  we  found  she  had  been  posted  off  some- 
where else.  When  we  went  to  the  somewhere  else  (al- 
ways freely  mentioned  to  us,  with  invitation  to  go),  we 
found  she  had  been  there,  but  had  been  forwarded  else- 
where. For  weeks  she  was  tossed  about  like  this;  then 
we  traced  her  and  found  her.  But  she  was  thoroughly 
cowed,  and  dared  not  show  the  least  interest  in  us.  .  .  . 
Take  a  child  of  four  or  five,  ask  it  a  question  concerning 
its  Caste,  and  you  will  see  how  that  baby  tree  has  begun 
to  drop  branch  rootlets.  .  . 

The  young  girls  belonging  to  the  higher  Castes  are 
kept  in  strict  seclusion.  During  these  formative  years 
they  are  shut  up  within  the  courtyard  walls  to  the  dwarf- 
ing life  within,  and  as  a  result  they  get  dwarfed,  and  lose 
in  resourcefulness  and  independence  of  mind,  and  above 
all  in  courage;  and  this  tells  terribly  in  our  work,  making 
it  so  difficult  to  persuade  such  a  one  to  think  for  herself. 
It  is  this  custom  which  makes  work  among  girls  exceed- 
ingly slow  and  unresultful. 

A  few  months  ago  a  boy  of  twelve  resolved  to  become  a 
Christian.  His  clan,  eight  thousand  strong,  were  enraged. 
There  was  a  riot  in  the  streets;  in  the  house  the  poison 
cup  was  ready.  Better  death  than  loss  of  Caste.  In 
another  town  a  boy  took  his  stand  and  was  baptized, 
thus  crossing  the  line  that  divided  secret  belief  from  open 
confession.  His  Caste  men  got  hold  of  him  afterwards; 
next  time  he  was  seen  he  was  a  raving  lunatic.  The  Caste 
was  avenged!  (Amy  Wilson  Carmichael  in  "Things  as 
They  Are.") 

SPIRIT-WORSHIP  AMONG  THE  LAO 

Spirit-worship,  as  existing  among  the  Lao,  is  not  re- 
duced to  a  system  as  is  Buddhism.  It  has  no  temple,  but 
it  is  enshrined  in  the  heart  of  every  man,  woman,  and 
child  in  the  country.  .  .  Children  are  seen  with  soot  marks 


The  Child  at  Worship  215 

upon  their  foreheads.  These  are  placed  there  by  spirit- 
doctors  and  are  to  ward  off  evil.  They  also  wear  around 
their  wrists  charm-strings.  This  belief  is  by  no  means 
confined  to  the  peasantry. 

Every  person  is  believed  to  have  thirty-two  good 
spirits  pervading  his  body,  called  kwan.  As  long  as  these 
kwan  all  remain  as  guardian  spirits  within,  no  sickness  or 
mishap  can  befall  the  person.  But  alas!  these  kwan 
are  freaky,  vacillating  spirits,  and  may  leave  the  body 
without  a  moment's  warning,  and  at  once  sickness  or 
accident  befalls.  Much  time  and  money  are  spent  trying 
to  keep  these  kwan  in  a  good  humor,  so  that  they  will 
not  desert  the  body.  .  . 

The  folk-lore  of  this  people  is  pregnant  with  this  belief 
in  magic  and  spirit-worship,  and  so  the  children  at  the 
knee  learn  to  reverence  and  fear  both,  and  in  after  years 
when  the  saner  reason  of  maturity  would  assert  itself, 
this  belief  has  become  a  habit  too  deeply  ingrained  in  the 
mind  to  be  cast  aside.  (Lillian  Johnson  Curtis  in  "The 
Laos  of  North  Siam,"  Westminster  Press.) 

SUNDAY-SCHOOL— NINGPO,  CHINA 

I  wish  some  of  you  might  be  here  tomorrow  to  go  with 
me  to  my  Sunday-School  for  heathen  children.  This  is 
a  school  which  had  to  be  discontinued  for  some  time,  and 
I  re-opened  it  on  Easter  Sunday,  with  the  assistance  of 
nine  of  our  older  girls  and  pupil  teachers.  One  hundred 
were  present  last  Sunday,  including  some  girls  from  our 
two  mission  schools,  and  a  few  visitors.  The  majority 
of  the  children  are  very  poor  and  dirty,  and  they  are 
learning  to  sing  "Jesus  loves  me,  this  I  know,"  with  as 
much  gusto  as  though  they  were  as  clean  as  pinks,  and 
they  carry  away  with  them  a  lesson  leaf  and  a  picture 
card,  to  try  to  tell  at  home  what  they  have  learned  that 
day.  I  quite  forget  they  are  Chinese  children,  for  their 
human  nature  is  very  like  that  of  the  children  at  home. 
One  Sunday,  two  little  girls  from  our  mission  school,  clean 


216  The  Child  in  the  Midst 

and  comfortably  dressed,  were  sitting  on  the  front  seat, 
when  I  brought  in  three  little  heathen  girls,  soiled  and 
untidy,  to  sit  beside  them.  Whereupon  one  of  the  clean 
little  girls  drew  herself  off  in  one  corner,  gathering  her 
clothes  close  about  her  for  fear  of  touching  the  others; 
while  the  second  clean  little  girl  moved  toward  the  soiled 
children  and  shared  her  hymnbook  with  them,  pointing 
out  each  character  as  we  sang.  Did  you  ever  know  any 
little  children  at  home  who  acted  as  did  these  two  Chinese 
children?     (Edith  C.  Dickie  in  The  Foreign  Post.) 

BIBLE    READING 

"Suffer  the  little  children."     Mark  10:13-16. 

Various  ways  in  which  Christ's  disciples  hinder  the 
children, — consider  them  too  young, — too  irresponsible, — 
feel  that  adults  have  the  first  claim  to  Christ's  time  and 
attention. 

How  different  was  Christ's  attitude!  "In  His  words 
over  the  little  children,  Christ  has  lifted  childhood  into 
a  type  of  character,  and  has  given  children  their  share  in 
the  Kingdom  of  God."     (Shailer  Mathews.) 

The  touch  of  Christ  on  a  little  child's  life  brings  bless- 
ing. Are  we  bringing  the  children  to  Him  or  forbidding 
them?  "The  place  for  the  lambs  is  in  the  fold."  (Woelf- 
kin.) 

A  CHILDREN'S  LITANY 

Dear  Heavenly  Father  of  all  the  children  of  the  earth; 
Have  mercy  upon  us. 

O  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  who  didst  become  a  child  to  redeem 
all  nations; 

Have  mercy  upon  us. 

That  in  all  the  families  of  the  world  parents  and  children 
may  learn  to  have  a  fear  and  love  of  Thy  Holy  Name; 
We  pray  Thee,  dear  Lord. 


The  Child  at  Worship  217 

That  a  blessing  may  rest  upon  the  homes  of  all  mission- 
aries, and  that ,  protection  may  be  granted  to  all  mis- 
sionary fathers  and  mothers; 

We  pray  Thee,  dear  Lord. 

That  we  may  earnestly  desire  to  bring  some  child  who 
does  not  understand,  into  the  light  of  the  Star  of  Beth- 
lehem; 

We  pray  Thee,  dear  Lord. 

That  homes  and  hospitals  which  minister  to  the  needs  of 
children  may  be  blessed,  and  their  number  multiplied; 
We  pray  Thee,  dear  Lord. 

For  Christian  nurture,  Christian  homes,  and  Christian 
parents; 

We  thank  Thee,  dear  Lord. 

For  the  Babe  of  Bethlehem  in  the  manger,  and  the  Christ- 
Child  in  the  carpenter  shop; 

We  thank  Thee,  dear  Lord. 

(Spirit  of  Missions.) 

QUESTIONS 

1.  What  would  be  the  moral  and  physical  effects  on  a 
boy,  of  the  religious  rites  of  ancestor  worship  as  practiced 
among  the  Fang  tribe  of  Africa?, 

2.  What  can  we  learn  from  Mohammedan  methods  in 
teaching  their  children  the  Koran,  and  establishing  them 
in  the  doctrines  and  usages  of  their  faith? 

3.  What  are  the  principal  difficulties  met  by  repre- 
sentatives of  Christianity  in  efforts  to  come  in  contact  with 
and  influence  Mohammedan  children? 

4.  Suggest  methods  best  adapted  for  overcoming 
these  difficulties. 

5.  :  What  methods  have  been  most  successful  in  reach- 
ing the  children  in  the  missions  of  your  denomination? 

6.  What  estimate  should  be  placed  on  the  Sunday- 
School  as  a  factor  in  the  evangelization  of  mission  lands? 


218  The  Child  in  the  Midst 

7.  What  are  the  greatest  needs  for  better  equipment 
in  Sunday-School  work  in  the  lands  where  your  Board  is 
at  work? 

8.  What  can  American  children  be  trained  to  do  in 
meeting  these  needs? 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Children  of   Persia,   Mrs.   Napier   Malcolm,    (Oliphant, 

Anderson  &  Ferrier.) 
Children  of  Egypt,  Miss  L.  Crowther,  (Oliphant,  Ander- 
son &  Ferrier.) 
"Little  Wednesday,"  Everyland,  June,  1913. 
"A  Social  Settlement  in   the  Slums  of  Okayama,"  Mis- 
sionary Review  of  the  World,  Dec,  1912. 
Sketches  from  the  Karen  Hills,  Alonzo  Bunker,  (Revell.) 
On  the  Borders  of  Pigmy  Land,  Chaps.  9,  10,  19-25,  Ruth 

B.  Fisher,  (Revell.) 
The  Light  of  the  World,  Chap.  6,  R.  E.  Speer,  (Mission 

Study  Series) 
Lotus  Buds,  Amy  Wilson  Carmichael,  (Geo.  H.  Doran  Co.) 
Things  as  They  Are,  Amy  Wilson  Carmichael,  (Revell.) 
Overweights  of  Joy,  Amy  Wilson  Carmichael,  (Revell.) 
The  Call  of  Moslem  Children,   Missionary   Review  of  the 
World,  Oct.,  1913. 


LEAFLETS 

Ought-to-have-been-a-boy        Woman's   Baptist  Foreign 
Sorrows  of  Heathen  Moth-        Missionary  Society, 
erhood 


The  Child  at  Worship 


219 


How  Chinese  children  learn 
to  worship  idols 

Boys  and  Girls  in  Korea 

Christmas  in  India 

How  Koharu  learned  to  wor- 
ship 

A  Little  Girl  and  the  Lions 

A  Sunday-School  picnic  in 
India 

The  god  of  Hindu  children 

Three  in  a  Temple 

How  a  bamboo   helped   to 

overthrow  idol  worship 
Ping-ti's  discoveries 

A  Road  and  a  Song 
I  come  to  stay 


Pen  notes  and  pictures 
Story  of  Ozeki  San 
How  we  do  evangelistic  work 
in  Japan 


Woman's  Foreign  Mis- 
sionary Society  of  the 
Methodist  Episcopal 
Church. 


Woman's  Board  of  Mis- 
sions of  the  Congrega- 
tional Church. 

Woman's  Board  of  For- 
eign Missions  of  the  Pres- 
byterian Church. 

Woman's  Board  of  Foreign 
Missions  Reformed 
Church  in  America. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

THE  CHILD  AT  WORK  FOR  CHRIST 

"I  must  be  about  my  Father's  business." 


Christ  needs  all  the  children  of  the  world — 
Work  for  the  children  in  awakening  lands,  Japan, 
China,  India — Work  for  the  children  in  lands 
convulsed  by  war  and  revolution,  Turkey, 
Persia — Work  for  the  children  in  lands  asleep — 
The  world's  tragedies — What  a  slave  boy  accom- 
plished— Need  for  trained  workers — How  Bishop 
Selwyn  obtained  and  trained  them — Children  at 
work  for  Christ — Children  from  mission  lands 
helping  to  save  America — Missionary  children 
at  work — American  children  have  a  share  in 
the  working  and  giving  and  going — The  world 
needs  the  Holy  Child. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

THE  CHILD  AT  WORK  FOR  CHRIST 

"I  must  be  about  my  Father's  business." 


The  Children  of  the  World    need    Christ. 
Christ  needs  the  Children, — all  the  Chil- 
dren of  the  World. 

Unless  the  children  of  today  are  brought  to  the  Se^hild^f? 
Master  and  trained  for  His  service,  the  outlook 
is  dark  indeed  for  coming  generations.  If 
every  child  now  living  could  be  brought  under 
Christian  influences,  receive  a  Christian  educa- 
tion, and  be  sent  out  to  live  and  work  for  Christ, 
what  a  marvelous  transformation  this  world 
would  experience!  In  a  conspicuous  place  on  the 
wall  at  a  recent  Sunday-School  convention  hung 
a  banner  with  the  words  "Childhood  is  the 
Hope  of  the  World/' — the  same  thought  that  was 
embodied  in  the  remark  of  a  prominent  Japanese 
Christian,  who  said  to  a  missionary,  "  The  grown- 
up people  are  so  ignorant  and  set  in  their  ways, 
they  will  not  become  Christians,  but  the  hope 
is  in  the  children."* 

*  Woman's  Work,  July,  1911. 


224 


The  Child  in  the  Midst 


Work  for  the 
children  in 
awakening 
lands. 


Changes  in 
Japan. 


"He  who  helps  a  child,"  says  Phillips  Brooks, 
"helps  humanity  with  a  distinctness,  with  an 
immediateness,  which  no  other  help  given  to 
human  creatures  in  any  other  stage  of  their 
human  life,  can  possibly  give  again."  Here  is  a 
challenge  to  all  who  believe  that  the  world  needs 
hope,  that  humanity  needs  help,  that  God  needs 
human  agents  to  carry  out  His  plans,  that  Christ 
needs  the  child! 

What  is  there  for  the  child  of  today, — the 
man  and  woman  of  tomorrow, — to  do  in  coun- 
tries that  are  awaking  out  of  age-long  sleep? 

Sixty  years  ago  Japan  was  in  darkness.  What 
great  transformations  have  taken  place  since 
Commodore  Perry  sailed  for  Yedo  Bay  in  Novem- 
ber, 1852 !  As  a  commercial,  military,  and  naval 
power  Japan  has  been  taking  her  place  with  the 
important  nations  of  the  earth.  We  have  already 
learned  that  her  educational  system  contains 
much  that  might  well  be  copied  in  Western  lands. 
The  manner  in  which  Japan  is  "catching  up" 
with  nations  that  have  had  centuries  of  advantage 
over  her  reminds  one  of  the  educational  experi- 
menters who  claim  that  a  child  need  not  be 
bothered  with  mathematics  until  he  is  ten  or 
twelve  years  old,  and  that  he  will  then  speedily 
"catch  up"  with  children  who  have  toiled  over 
their  mathematics  since  they  were  of  kinder- 
garten age.  During  the  serious  outbreak  of 
bitter  feeling  in  Japan  regarding  the  proposed 
Alien  Land  Holding  Bill  pending  in  the  California 


The  Child  at  Work  For  Christ         225 

Legislature,  a  large  reception  was  tendered  in 
Tokyo  to  Dr.  John  R.  Mott,  Hamilton  Wright 
Mabie  and  Dr.  Peabody.  In  the  course  of  his 
address,  Count  Okuma,  who  is  not  in  any  sense  a 
Christian,  remarked  that  diplomacy,  the  courts, 
and  commercial  interests  were  alike  helpless  to 
maintain  peace  on  earth  arid  good  will  among 
men.  "The  only  hope,"  he  said,  "is  in  the  power 
of  Christianity  and  in  the  influence  of  Christians 
to  maintain  peace  and  righteousness  in  the  spirit 
of  brotherly  love."* 

Not  only  from  a  political  point  of  view,  but  ^nsuHn 
far  more  from  an  intellectual  and  religious  point  u£j^ity. 
of  view,  is  Japan  in  great,  urgent  need  of  what 
Christianity  can  give  her.  "It  seems  from  the 
figures  of  a  religious  census  recently  taken  in  the 
Imperial  University  of  Japan  at  Tokyo,  that  of 
the  students  in  attendance,  three-fourths  of 
them  declare  themselves  agnostics,  while  fifteen 
hundred  are  content  to  be  registered  as  atheists. 
That  leaves  only  five  hundred  of  the  whole 
student  body  to  be  accounted  for:  and  of  these, 
sixty  are  Christian,  fifty  Buddhist,  and  eight 
Shinto.  .  .The  educated  classes  of  Japan  have 
practically  broken  with  Shintoism  and  Buddhism, 
and  are  looking  around  for  some  better  basis 
for  ethics  and  faith.  The  issue  in  Japan  is  no 
longer  between  Christianity  and  Buddhism,  but 
between  Christianity  and  nothing."** 

*  Told  in  Missionary  Review  of  the  World,  June,  1913. 
**  Told  in  Missionary  Review  of  the  World,  June,  1913. 


o  The  Child  in  the  Midst 

Side  by  side  with  this  pregnarft  statement  we 
place  a  few  sentences  from  the  Sixth  Annual 
Report  of  the  Kindergarten  Union  of  Japan. 

"What  influence  has  the  kindergarten  on  the 
lives  of  its  graduates  in  later  years?  From  many 
churches  we  hear  of  them  as  church  members 
doing  active  service,  likje  one  young  man  who  has  a 
class  of  twenty-five  boys  in  Sunday-School. 
As  teachers,  as  mothers,  in  many  walks  of  life, 
they  are  showing  the  power  of  Christ  in  their 
lives,  and  all,  whether  Christians  or  not,  are 
better  men  and  women  for  their  training  in 
Christian  schools." 

The  inference  is  so  obvious  that  we  need  not 
comment  upon  it.  Rather  let  us  do  our  share 
to  multiply  the  agencies  that  can  embody  in 
their  reports  such  incidents  as  the  following  from 
the  American  Church  Mission  Kindergarten  at 
Sendai : — 

"More  than  ever  before  have  we  emphasized 
Christianity  as  the  center  of  our  thought  and  life, 
and  feel  much  encouraged  to  go  much  farther 
next  year.  Yearning  over  our  graduates,  who, 
when  they  leave  us,  may  be  separated  for  a  long 
time  from  Christian  teaching,  we  earnestly 
desired  to  see  Christianity  move  definitely  for- 
ward in  their  hearts,  so  far  as  may  be  for  little 
children.  So  we  based  the  last  month's  work  on 
Phil.  2:6-11.  This  seems  deep,  but  was  found 
helpful  by  the  teachers.  .  .  Just  before  gradua- 
tion, in  the  free  talk  at  luncheon  hour  one  day, 


The  Child  at  "Work  for  Christ         227 

a  boy  whose  parents  were  about  to  move  to  Akita 
said  most  disconsolately,  'There  won't  be  any  God 
to  take  care  of  me  when  I  go  to  Akita'!  'Oh, 
yes,  there  will,'  said  Taguchi  San,  who,  seeing  his 
need  of  a  broader  understanding  of  the  Omnipo- 
tent God,  told  of  the  God  of  all  the  earth,  and 
that  He  cared  for  us  wherever  we  go,  even  when 
farther  than  Akita.'  "* 

China's  awakening  has  been  so  sudden  and  so  China's. 

°    .  awakening. 

rapid  that  even  while  the  Christian  women 
of  America  were  studying  "China's  New  Day," 
many  facts  in  that  up-to-date  text-book  became 
ancient  history.  A  few  of  the  startling  contrasts 
between  the  Old  China  and  the  New  were  indi- 
cated in  the  Congregationalist  of  April  24,  1913. 

Associated  Press  despatches  from  Peking  on  Thursday 
of  last  week  reported  that  the  Chinese  Government  has 
made  an  appeal  to  all  the  Christian  churches  in  China  to 
set  aside  April  27 — next  Sunday — as  a  day  of  prayer  for 
the  Chinese  National  Assembly,  for  the  new  Government, 
for  the  President  of  the  new  Republic  yet  to  be  elected, 
for  the  constitution  of  the  Republic,  for  the  maintenance 
of  peace  and  for  the  election  of  strong  and  virtuous  men 
to  office.  Representatives  of  provincial  authorities  are 
instructed  to  be  present  at  these  services.  .  .  . 

Thirteen  years  ago  this  coming  summer  the  Imperial 
Government  of  China  hunted  and  slew  her  Christian 
subjects  like  wild  beasts  and  brought  all  of  the  resources 
at  her  command  to  aid  in  driving  the  hated  religions  of 
the  "foreign  devils"  from  her  shores.  Today  the  new 
Republic  solemnly  and  officially  sets  apart  a  day  and  urges 
all  her  Christian  subjects,  as  well  as  foreigners,  to  assemble 

*  Sixth  Annual  Report  of  the  Kindergarten  Union  of  Japan. 


228  The  Child  in  the  Midst 

and,  in  the  presence  of  the  officials,  intercede  for  those 
things  which  Christian  nations  seek  and  supremely  value. 

In  1900  a  despatch  was  sent  from  the  throne  to  all 
viceroys  of  all  the  provinces  to  exterminate  all  foreigners, 
and  the  streets  of  Peking  were  placarded  with  posters 
threatening  with  death  all  who  provided  them  refuge. 
A  few  weeks  ago  the  President  of  the  Republic,  Yuan  Shi 
Kai,  addressing  in  Peking  an  assembly  of  delegates  to  the 
Annual  Convention  of  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.,  said: 

"You,  my  friends,  who  are  members  and  delegates  to 
this  Christian  Association  from  every  province  of  the 
Republic,  are  examples  for  the  men  of  every  class  of  so- 
ciety. By  the  help  of  your  guiding  light  and  uplifting 
influence,  millions  of  young  men,  well  equipped,  morally, 
intellectually,  and  physically,  will  be  raised  up  in  this 
nation  to  render  loyal  service  to  the  Republic  in  her  time 
of  need,  and  lift  her  to  a  position  that  shall  add  to  the 
civilized  world  an  undying  luster." 

China  is  doing  her  part  to  make  amends  for  the  past 
and  to  demonstrate  to  the  entire  world  the  sincerity  of 
her  purpose.  Undoubtedly  this  is  the  first  time  in  history 
that  such  an  appeal  has  been  made  by  a  non-Christian 
nation.  With  commendable  promptness  both  the  Fed- 
eral Council  and  Committee  of  Reference  and  Council 
of  the  Foreign  Missionary  Societies  of  North  America 
have  asked  the  churches  to  intercede  for  China. 

Was  there  ever  a  more  striking  proof  of  the  presence  of 
God  in  the  life  of  the  world  and  of  His  purposes  for  men 
in  Jesus  Christ  the  universal  Saviour?  Was  there  ever 
greater  encouragement  to  use  the  mighty  enginery  of 
united  prayer  for  a  specific  end? 

Sun  Yat  Sen.         Listen  to  the  testimony  of  the  son  of  a  promi- 
nent Christian  official  in  China: — ■ 

"Where  did  the  Chinese  Republic  ever  come 
from?  You  say  from  the  reformers  and  revo- 
lutionists.   You  don't  go  back  far  enough.     Dr. 


Y he  Child  at  Work  for  Christ        M& 

Sun  was  in  a  large  measure  responsible  for  it  all, 
but  where  does  he  come  from?  Where  did  he 
get  his  principles  of  freedom  and  equality? 
These  were  instilled  into  his  heart  by  a  missionary, 
and  who  was  he?  He  was  a  follower  of  Jesus 
Christ,  and  in  China  for  the  direct  purpose  of 
teaching  how  Jesus  came  to  save  the  world.  .  . 
Blot  out  of  China  today  the  education  which 
owes  its  origin  to  Jesus  Christ,  and  where  will 
China  be?    In  the  depth  of  deepest  ignorance."* 

Sun  Yat  Sen,  by  many  considered  "the  first 
citizen  in  the  hearts  of  his  countrymen,"  spoke 
with  no  uncertain  sound  of  China's  greatest  need 
in  this  time  of  her  crisis.  "Brothers,"  he  said, 
when  addressing  a  number  of  Chinese  students, 
"applied,  practical  Christianity  is  our  true  need. 
Away  with  the  commentaries  and  doubts.  God 
asks  your  obedience,  not  your  patronage.  He 
demands  your  service,  not  your  criticism."** 

"Applied,  practical  Christianity,"  is  what  the  cEristiinit  in 
missionaries  are  trying  to  give  China,  and  can  China- 
any  part  of  their  work  be  more  practical  or  more 
important  than  what  they  are  doing  for  the  chil- 
dren who  are  soon  to  be  the  statesmen  and  edu- 
cators, the  military  and  social  leaders,  the 
fathers  and  mothers  of  the  great  new  Republic 
of  the  East? 

Many  pages  might  be  filled  with  true  tales  of  Dr-  u  Bi  Cu- 
how  Chinese  children,  won  to  Christ  in  early 

*  "Testimony    of   a   College   Student,"  Worn.  For.    Miss'y  Soc. 
Pres.  Ch. 

**  Rev.  C.  R.  Mayes,  M.  D.,  in  N.  American  Student,  May,  1913. 


230  The  Child  in  the  Midst 

life,  have  brought  blessing  and  uplift  to  hundreds 
in  their  land.  The  story  of  Dr.  Li  Bi  Cu  and  her 
mother  is  a  wonderful  illustration  of  what  might 
be  multiplied  many  thousands  of  times  if  there 
were  always  some  one  ready  to  rescue  girl  babies 
and  to  give  them  a  fair  chance. 

Dr.  Li  Bi  Cu  is  one  of  China's  new  women.  A  forceful 
speaker,  using  perfect  English,  with  a  charming  person- 
ality, Dr.  Li  Bi  Cu  never  fails  to  win  the  hearts  of  her 
audiences.  Those  who  heard  her  at  Northfield  can  never 
forget  the  appeal  made  by  the  little  woman  in  Chinese 
dress,  to  the  women  of  the  United  States  to  come  to  the 
help  of  her  countrywomen.  The  mother  of  Dr.  Li  Bi  Cu 
was  rescued  from  the  street,  where  she  had  been  thrown 
to  die,  when  only  a  day  or  two  old,  and  taken  to  a  mission 
school,  where  she  was  cared  for,  educated,  and  trained  as 
a  Bible  woman.  She  married  a  Methodist  minister,  Mr. 
Li,  and  her  daughter,  Li  Bi  Cu,  grew  up  in  a  Christian 
home.  One  of  the  missionaries,  seeing  unusual  ability  in 
the  young  girl,  brought  her  to  America  for  a  more  thorough 
education  than  China  afforded.  She  studied  in  Folts 
Institute,  and  later  entered  the  Women's  Medical  Col- 
lege in  Philadelphia.  Graduating  with  honor,  she  re- 
turned to  China  after  eight  years'  residence  in  the  United 
States  and  was  sent  to  the  Fukien  Province,  where  the 
Woman's  Foreign  Missionary  Society  of  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church  had  opened  a  hospital,  and  where  she 
has  cared  for  the  souls  and  bodies  of  thousands  of  pa- 
tients.* 

A  charming  sequel  to  the  story  shows  how  this 
splendid  Chinese  woman  is  ready  at  a  moment's 
notice  to  do  her  duty  as  a  Christian  citizen  of  the 
world.     She  was  passing  on  her  return  to  China 

*  Missionary  Review  of  the  World,  March,  1913. 


The  Child  at  Work  for  Christ         231 

a  point  not  far  from  Chicago,  when  the  train 
struck  a  track  laborer  and  suddenly  stopped. 
The  injured  man,  a  Russian  by  birth,  was  brought 
aboard,  and  Dr.  Li,  hearing  of  the  accident, 
volunteered  her  help.  Then  was  seen  the  curious 
combination  of  a  Chinese  Christian  woman 
physician  caring  for  a  wounded  Slav  in  an  Ameri- 
can baggage  car!* 

"Applied,  practical  Christianity"  is  being  2J£5ib 
taught  to  the  mothers  of  China,  and  some  of  counciL 
them  are  responding  in  a  way  that  augurs  well  for 
the  future  of  their  children  and  their  land.  Mrs. 
T.  N.  Thompson  of  Tsining  writes  of  a  recent 
women's  convention  to  which  Christians  came  from 
far  and  near,  some  from  a  distance  of  sixty  miles. 
Women  spoke  from  the  platform  with  ease, 
spirit,  and  eloquence.  Some  of  the  subjects 
discussed  were: — Equal  authority  of  husbands 
and  wives — Partiality  between  sons  and  daughters 
■ — Duty  of  sending  girls  to  school — Cleanliness  and 
order  of  the  home  as  taught  in  mission  schools — 
Dedication  of  children  to  the  Lord.  The  subject 
of  marriage  engagements  was  thoroughly  can- 
vassed, and  many  laughed  heartily  at  reminis- 
cences of  old  heathen  days  when  children  were 
betrothed  in  babyhood."**  "Old  heathen  days!" 
And  yet  it  is  but  one  hundred  years  since  Robert 
Morrison  baptized  his  first  Christian  convert, 
and  but  fourteen  years  since  the  great  Boxer 

*  Record  of  Christian  Work,  March,  1913. 
**  The  Continent,  June  12,  1913. 


232 


The  Child  in  the  Midst 


Work  for  the 
children  in 
India. 


girl  redeemed. 


uprising  tried  to  rid  the  land  of  all  Christians. 
Thus  it  was  ordained  long  centuries  ago  when 
God  "appointed  a  law  in  Israel,  when  He  com- 
manded our  fathers,  that  they  should  make  them 
known  to  their  children;  that  the  generation  to 
come  might  know  them,  even  the  children  that 
should  be  born,  who  should  arise  and  tell  them 
to  their  children."  (Psalm  78 :  5,  6.)  From  father 
to  son,  from  mother  to  daughter,  the  knowledge 
of  God's  love  and  Christ's  salvation  is  to  be 
transmitted,  and  those  who  gain  that  knowledge 
in  early  childhood  are  the  ones  on  whom  China 
can  surely  depend  in  the  important  years  to 
come. 

"The  children  born  of  Christian  parents  in 
India,"  says  Rev.  E.  A.  Arnett  in  the  Sunday 
School  Times,  "are  probably  not  more  than 
half  a  million,  but  upon  the  thorough  and  syste- 
matic character  of  the  religious  work  done  among 
these  depends  the  hope  of  the  future  of  the 
church  of  India.  These  are  to  be  the  army  for 
India's  conquest.  The  day  of  opportunity  is 
soon  to  come  to  India  as  it  has  come  to  Japan 
and  to  China.  A  great  crisis  is  approaching  when 
there  will  be  a  death-grapple  in  the  open  between 
Christianity  and  the  opposing  forces.  Then 
will  be  needed  as  never  before  an  Indian  church, 
rich  in  men  and  women  able  and  fit  for  the  fight." 

That  India's  children  with  all  their  handicaps 
are  capable  of  being  made  "fit  for  the  fight"  can 
be  abundantly  proven.    A  letter  from  a  mission- 


The  Child  at  Work  for  Christ         233 

ary  friend  tells  of  a  little  Indian  protege,  now  a 
grown  woman,  who  was  the  child  of  a  drunken 
father  and  a  half  crazy,  evil-tempered  mother, 
who,  in  a  brawl,  lamed  her  poor  baby  for  life. 
The  child  was  sent  away  to  school  after  her 
father's  death,  and  it  seemed  as  if  it  were  to  prove 
her  salvation.  But  at  the  age  of  fourteen  the 
old  evil  propensities  broke  forth.  She  became 
foul-tongued,  irreverent,  disobedient,  and  diseased. 
She  was  sent  to  visit  her  mother,  then  an  inmate 
of  an  insane  asylum,  where  the  girl  was  placed 
under  observation  and  declared  to  be  a  moral 
degenerate.  The  fact  that  she  was  perfectly 
satisfied  to  stay  at  the  asylum  was  a  cause  of  great 
distress  to  her  missionary  friend,  and  soon  a 
number  of  earnest  workers  banded  themselves  to 
pray  for  her  "literally  night  and  day."  A 
wonderful  change  came  over  the  girl;  the  seed 
sown  in  earlier  years  sprang  up  and  bore  fruit. 
She  asked  to  be  allowed  to  leave  the  asylum, 
and  soon  after  taking  a  position  she  gave  her 
heart  to  Christ.  Far  out  on  the  western  frontier 
of  India,  a  woman,  growing  in  grace  and  character,  • 
is  compounding  medicines,  and  otherwise  help- 
ing in  a  mission  hospital,  occupying  a  difficult 
and  trying  position.  Oh!  was  she  not  worth 
saving, — that  little,  lame,  degenerate  baby,  born 
in  the  degradation  of  darkest  India,  and  ac- 
complishing a -work  today  that  you  or  I  could 
not  do? 


234 


The  Child  in  the  Midst 


Work  for  the 
children  of 
Turkey  and 
Persia. 


Persian  school 
boys. 


What  is  there  for  the  children  to  do  in  lands 
that  have  lately  been  convulsed  with  war  and 
revolution?  Who  will  fill  the  places  of  able- 
bodied  men,  maimed  and  slain  in  battle?  Who 
is  to  reconstruct  and  upbuild  and  guide  through 
long  years  to  come  the  countries  that  have  been 
shaken  to  their  very  foundations?  The  only 
hope  of  Turkey  and  Persia  is  in  their  children, 
and  what  is  done  by  Christians  for  these  children 
today  will  determine  very  largely  the  course  of 
history  in  the  "near  East." 

The  boys'  school  at  Teheran,  Persia,  has  won 
the  name  of  a  "factory"!  Among  the  Moham- 
medan boys  brought  here,  is  a  little  fellow  whose 
father-  said  to  the  missionary,  "I  hear  this  is  a 
factory  where  you  manufacture  men.  Do  you 
think  you  can  turn  out  a  man  from  my  boy?"  * 
Such  "factories"  are  needed  throughout  Turkey 
and  Persia,  and  those  who  know  the  boys  of 
these  countries  will  assure  you  that  they  are 
capable  of  turning  out  to  be  men  if  they  have  the 
proper  opportunities.  When  the  self-supporting 
Christian  boarding  school  for  Mohammedan 
boys  was  started  in  Teheran,  the  missionaries 
naturally  felt  a  good  deal  of  concern  as  to  the 
results  of  such  an  experiment.  The  actual  re- 
sults are  thus  reported, — 

"Not  only  has  it  been  somewhat  more  than 
self-supporting   financially,    but,  thanks   to   the 


*  Told  in  Foreign  Post,  Dec,  1906. 


The  Child  at  Work  for  Christ         235 

co-operative  plan  initiated  from  the  beginning, 
into  which  the  boys  entered  with  enthusiasm, 
and  in  which  they  showed  a  most  admirable 
spirit  throughout  the  year,  a  good  share  of  the 
management  and  government  was  taken  by  the 
boys  themselves  in  a  most  efficient  manner, — 
of  course  under  the  close  supervision  of  my  wife 
and  myself."  * 

The  following  testimony  of  William  E.  Curtiss,  wm'FcLtL 
the  world-famous  correspondent  of  the  Chicago 
Record  Herald,  written  after  an  extended  visit 
to  the  Orient,  4  would  seem  to  be  convincing 
proof  that  missionaries  can  give  and  Turkish 
children  can  profit  by  that  which  will  re-mould 
and  upbuild  the  remnants  of  the  Turkish  Em- 
pire. 

"The  influence  of  the  American  schools  has 
been  carried  to  every  corner  of  the  Empire. 
Every  student  leaving  these  American  schools 
has  carried  the  germ  of  progress  to  his  sleeping 
town.  He  has  become  a  force  for  the  new  order 
wherever  he  has  gone.  This  influence  has  been 
working  for  a  half  century  or  more,  and  has  been 
preparing  the  minds  of  the  people  for  the  great 
change  that  has  recently  come  over  them.  The 
missionaries  do  not  teach  revolution,  they  do  not 
encourage  revolutionary  methods;  but  they 
have  always  preached  and  taught  liberty,  equal- 
ity, fraternity,  and  the  rights  of  man."  ** 

*  Rev.  S.  M.  Jordon  in  "The  New  Persia,"  Pres.  Bd.  For.  Miss. 
**  Missionary  Review  of  the  World,  August,  1911. 


summer. 


&86  The  Child  in  the  Midst 

Syriandrifl at  It  is  wen  to  remember  that  the  children  under 
missionary  influence  are  being  trained  not  only 
for  what  they  can  be  and  do  in  the  future,  when 
they  are  grown  up,  but  are  being  taught  to  use 
now  what  they  have  learned,  for  the  benefit  of 
others.  Listen  to  the  report  of  what  some 
Syrian  girls  did  during  a  summer  vacation. 

"An  hour  ago  I  came  home  from  Sunday-School  which 
we  are  having  this  summer.  We  began  it  the  first  sum- 
mer we  came  to  K.  .  .  and  twenty  children  attend.  We 
are  teaching  them  lessons  from  the  Old  Testament,  and  I 
think  I  can  say  that  our  school  is  a  real  success  this  year." 

"I  am  teaching  some  children  Bible  stories  and  have 
given  one  of  the  boys  two  papers  to  make  a  study  of  some 
chapters  which  I  have  appointed  for  him." 

"1  brought  a  new  Bible  with  me,  and  I  try  to  teach  our 
servant  to  read  it." 

These  few  extracts  are  from  letters  which  I  have  received 
this  summer  showing  how  Beirut  school-girls  are  trying  to 
give  expression  to  the  pass-it-on  spirit.  All  over  the 
country  they  are  busy  according  to  their  opportunities. 
I  know  of  one  little  girl  who  last  year  was  in  the  lowest 
class  of  our  Preparatory  Department,  but  this  year  has  a 
school  of  seventeen  every  Sunday  afternoon  during  the 
vacation.  One  of  her  older  brothers  and  a  boy  cousin 
taught  classes,  but  she  was  both  organizer  and  super- 
intendent. 

One  of  the  pleasantest  gatherings  we  shall  have  this 
fall  will  be  the  Report  Meeting,  when  we  shall  hear 'from 
all  the  pupils  about  results  of  their  summer  efforts  for 
others.  Fourteen  took  certain  Bibles  home  with  them, 
promising  to  use  them  in  teaching  others  to  read.* 

Is  there  anything  for  children  to  do  in  coun- 
tries where  as  yet  no  great  awakening  or  startling 

*  Missionary  Review  of  the  World,  August,  1911. 


The  Child  at  Work  for  Christ         237 

political  upheaval  has  taken  place,  but  where 
missionary  influence  has  been  quietly,  steadily 
at  work?  What  about  those  "unoccupied  mis- 
sion fields"  where  not  even  a  beginning  has  been 
made  toward  giving  the  Gospel  message?  Does 
Christ  need  the  children  of  these  lands  to  be  at 
work  for  Him? 

"Some  one   thus    summarizes    'The    World's  S^SS?'8 
Tragedies' 

207,000,000  bound  by  caste — from  Hinduism. 

147,000,000  permeated  with  atheism — from 
Buddhism. 

256,000,000  chained  to  a  dead  past — from  Con- 
fucianism. 

175,000,000  under  the  spell  of  Fatalism— from 
Mohammedanism. 

200,000,000  sitting  in  darkness — from  Pagan- 
ism." * 

\  Let  us  try  to  realize  that,  garb  unit  of  t.hagA 
vast  figures  stands  for  a  life  that,  was  on™>  w*- 
innocent  little  child,  born  into  conditions  or, 
surroundings  similar  to  those  of  which  we  have 
been  studying  in  this  book.  Think  of  the  futures 
tragedies  that  may  be  averted  if  each  little  childl 
tpijay  is  redeemed  and  begins_to  work  for  Christ.) 
Why  should  there  not  be  thousands  of  averted  bS^c*c8la' 
or  transformed  tragedies  like  those  surrounding  ^]^hed- 
the  life  of  the  little  black  boy,  born  in  1806  on 
the  West  Coast  of  Africa?  Because  of  certain 
peculiar  circumstances  at  his  birth  it  was  prophe- 

*  New  York  City  Mission  Monthly,  May,  1913. 


accom- 


238  The  Child  in  the  Midst 

sied  that  he  was  not  to  be  a  devotee  of  any 
idol,  but  one  "celebrated  and  distinguished  to 
serve  the  great  and  highest  God."  At  one  time 
when  the  house  of  his  prosperous  father  caught 
fire,  the  little  boy  rushed  in  and  saved  the  idols. 
Whereupon  it  was  commonly  said, — "This  child 
will  be  a  great  worshiper  of  the  gods;  he  will 
one  day  restore  the  gods  to  our  nation." 

When  the  child  was  about  fifteen,  a  raid  was 
made  upon  the  village  by  Mohammedans,  and 
a  large  number  of  women  and  children  were  led 
away  captive  with  ropes  around  their  necks, 
young  Ajayi  and  his  mother  and  grandmother 
among  the  number.  Sold  from  one  person  to 
another,  often  bartered  for  rum  or  tobacco,  he 
finally  fell  into  the  hands  of  Portuguese  traders. 
He  and  his  fellow  slaves  were  rescued  by  an 
English  man-of-war  from  the  Portuguese  vessel, 
and  he  was  educated  by  the  Church  Missionary 
Society.  He  became  a  school-master,  then 
preacher,  and  finally  Bishop  of  the  native  Church 
on  the  Niger.  Fourah  Bay  College,  where  he 
pursued  a  part  of  his  studies,  was  founded  as  a 
result  of  the  conviction  forced  upon  the  Church 
Missionary  Society  that,  if  Africa  were  to  be 
evangelized,  it  must  be  done  chiefly  through 
native  agency,  because  of  the  devastating  effects 
of  the  climate  on  foreigners.  In  other  words, 
Christ  needs  the  children  of  Africa,  to  be  trained  for 
Him  in  places  where  no  one  else  in  the  wide 
world  can  accomplish  the  task. 


The  Child  at  Work  for  Christ         239 

On  the  beautiful  white  monument,  erected  over 
the  grave  in  Lagos,  Sierra  Leone,  can  be  read 
these  words  that  give  a  brief  outline  of  the  noble 
life  work  of  the  little  slave  boy  whom  some  one 
thought  worth  saving  and  training  for  Christian 
service. 

Sacred  to  the  memory  of 

THE  RIGHT  REV.  SAMUEL  AJAYI  GROWTHER, 

D.D. 

A  Native  of  Osogun,  in  the  Yoruba  Country; 

A  Recaptured  and  Liberated  Slave; 

The  First  Student  in  the  Church  Missionary  Society's 

College, 

At  Fourah  Bay,  Sierra  Leone; 

Ordained  in  England  by  the  Bishop  of  London,  June  11th, 

1843; 
The  First  Native  Clergyman  of  the  Church  of  England  in 
West  Africa, 
Consecrated  Bishop,  June  29th,  1864. 
A  Faithful,  Earnest,  and  Devoted  Missionary  in  Connec- 
tion 
With   the   Church    Missionary    Society    for    62    Years, 
At  Sierra  Leone,  in  the  Timini  and  Yoruba  Countries 

And  in  the  Niger  Territory; 

He  Accompanied  the  First  Royal  Niger  Expedition  in  1841; 

Was  a  joint  founder  with  others  of  the  Yoruba  Mission 

in  1845, 

And  Founder  of  the  Niger  Mission  in  1857; 

And  of  the  Self -Supporting  Niger  Delta  Pastorale  in  1891. 

He  fell  asleep  in  Jesus  at  Lagos,  on  the  31st  December,  1891, 

Aged  about  89  Years. 

"Well  done,  thou  good  and  faithful  servant,  .  .  .  Enter 
thou  into  the  joy  of  thy  Lord."     Matt.  25:  5. 
"  Redeemed  by  His  Blood."  * 

*  "The  Black  Bishop,"  Jesse  Page,  p.  379.     (Revell.) 


240 


The  Child  in  the  Midst 


Trained 
native  workers 
necessary. 


Methods  of 
Bishop  Selwyn 
in  the  Pacific 
Islands. 


Our  story  of  The  Child  will  not  be  complete 
unless  we  pay  close  attention  to  one  of  the  great 
fundamental  policies  of  Christian  missions, — 
alluded  to  above, — that  the  work  of  world  evan- 
gelization must  be  accomplished  chiefly  through 
trained  natives  of  the  countries  where  the  Gospel 
is  not  known.  And  these  agents,  in  order  to  be 
most  efficient  and  successful  should  be  won  to 
Christ  in  early  life.  The  methods  used  by  Bishop 
Selwyn  in  the  New  Hebrides  were  so  successful 
and  interesting  and  illustrate  this  point  so  thor- 
oughly that  it  will  pay  us  to  study  them. 

Bishop  Augustus  Selwyn,  of  the  Episcopalian  Church  of 
New  Zealand,  proposed  to  secure  children  of  the  natives 
in  the  new  fields,  educate  these  children  in  schools  of  a 
Christian  country,  and  send  them  as  pioneer  missionaries 
to  their  own  peoples.  He  proposed,  also,  that,  after  these 
children  had  overcome  the  pagan  opposition,  white 
missionaries  should  be  introduced  for  co-operating  with 
them.  "The  white  corks,"  he  said,  "were  for  floating 
the  black  net." 

With  this  in  view,  in  1848,  he  made  a  voyage  of  explora- 
tion in  H.  M.  S.  Dido  as.  far  as  to  the  Loyalty  Islands. 
Observing  that  the  Fijis,  the  Southern  Hebrides,  and  sev- 
eral other  groups  were  occupied  by  other  religious  denom- 
inations which  were  doing  successful  work,  he  chose  for  his 
field  the  groups  not  thus  occupied.  These  were  the 
Northern  Hebrides,  Banks,  Santa  Cruz,  Torres,  Reef, 
and  Solomon  Groups.  .  . 

Over  these  islands  the  trail  of  the  Serpent  has  extended. 
A  wilder,  more  besotted,  and  fiercer  people  than  their 
inhabitants  it  would  be  hard  to  find.  With  the  exception 
of  the  natives  of  the  Santa  Cruz  aDd  Reef  Islands,  they 


The  Children  of  Tunis  are  Worth  Helping 


The  Child  at  Work  for  Christ         241 

all  were  formerly  cannibals,  and  those  of  them  in  the 
Solomon  Group  were  also  head-hunters.  .  . 

The  work  of  procuring  boys  proved  to  be  difficult  and 
perilous.  By  great  tact  and  a  kind  and  courteous  man- 
ner the  Bishop  secured  in  his  first  trip  five.  In  process 
of  time  he  was  able  to  employ  the  boys,  who  had  been 
some  time  in  his  school,  to  do  the  soliciting,  and  then  he 
was  more  successful.  Each  succeeding  year  the  natives 
received  him  with  greater  cordiality,  and  more  readily 
supplied  his  vessel  with  stores  of  taro,  yams,  and  fruit. 
The  number  of  boys  in  the  school  has  been  one  hundred 
and  fifty  to  two  hundred. 

On  Norfold  Island  a  thousand  acres  of  land  were  pur- 
chased for  the  school  at  a  cost  of  ten  thousand*  dollars. 
In  this  tract  a  beautiful  chapel  was  built,  and  around  it 
houses  for  the  teachers  and  pupils.  The  land  was  very 
fertile,  and  was  easily  made  to  produce  almost  all  the  food 
the  school  needed.  The  boys  were  taught  the  gospel  of 
work.  They  were  trained  in  the  mechanic  trades,  the 
cultivation  of  the  ground,  and  the  care  of  livestock;  and 
to  each  of  them  was  committed  a  small  garden  for  him 
to  cultivate  for  himself.  They  were  kept  in  the  school 
six  to  ten  years,  and  then  taken,  as  teachers,  to  their 
homes  or  to  other  islands. 

In  1854  Rev.  John  Coleridge  Patteson  joined  the 
mission.  He  had  been  moved  when  fourteen  years  of 
age,  by  a  sermon  of  Bishop  Selwyn,  to  devote  himself 
to  the  missionary  cause.  In  1861  he  was  consecrated  as 
the  First  Bishop  of  Milanesia.  .  . 

The  Milanesians  who  have  embraced  Christianity 
have  ceased  from  their  cannibalism,  their  head-hunting, 
and  their  warfare,  and  have  become  an  humble,  upright, 
and  peace-loving  people.  In  1905  the  number  of  baptized 
persons  in  the  groups  of  the  mission  was  2,811,  of  white 
missionaries,  41,  of  native  teachers,  689,  of  mission  sta- 
tions, 200.* 

*  ''Islands  of  the  Pacific,"  Alexander.     Am.  Tract  Society. 


242 


The  Child  in  the  Midst 


Children  at 
work  for 
Christ  in 
Korea. 


In  Burma. 


The  Child  at  work  for  Christ!  Would  that 
it  were  possible  to  give  to  the  women  of  our 
American  Missionary  Societies  and  to  the  young 
women  of  our  schools  and  colleges  a  vision  of  the 
children  of  many  lands  who  are  today  at  work, 
— realizing  as  did  the  Christ  Child  that  they 
must  be  about  their  Father's  business.  In 
Korea,  we  shall  find  that  a  question  asked  of  each 
man,  woman,  and  child  who  wishes  to  become  a 
church  member  is, — "Have  you  tried  to  win  a  soul 
for  Jesus  Christ?"  Not  long  ago  the  children  in 
one  section  of  Korea  demanded  a  half  holiday, 
and  in  the  leisure  time  thus  obtained  the  five 
hundred  children  won  eight  hundred  others  into 
the  church.* 

Away  up  in  the  Karen  Hills  of  Burma  the  first 
mission  tour  of  exploration  to  a  certain  point  was 
made  with  a  company  which  included  a  number 
of  school  boys,  among  whom  were  some  sweet 
singers.  On  associating  with  the  Red  Karen 
children,  they  quickly  made  acquaintance  and 
were  valuable  workers.  Great  was  the  enthu- 
siasm among  the  little  Red  Karens  when  classes 
were  formed  in  reading  and  singing,  and  with 
surprising  quickness  they  learned  from  their  eager 
young  teachers,  who  were  glad  to  pass  on  to  other 
children  what  they  had  so  recently  acquired 
themselves.** 


*  Told  in  Over  Sea  and  Land,  April,  1913. 

**Told  in   "Sketches  from   the   Karen   Hills,"  Alonzo  Bunker. 
(Revell.) 


The  Child  at  Work  for  Christ         243 

Not  only  are  the  children  under  missionary  ^vere'lS8 
influence   trained   to   work,    but   they   are   also  Jap*** 
taught  the  joy  and  privilege  of  giving.     Here 
is  the  method  employed  by  Mrs.  McCauley  of 
Japan. 

The  Sunday-School  children  in  Keimo  No.  1  and  No.  2, 
Tokyo,  under  Mrs.  McCauley,  take  up  a  collection  every 
Sabbath.  .  .  The  children  coming  from  heathen  homes 
cannot  ask  their  parents  for  money  to  put  into  this  col- 
lection, so  must  practice  self-denial  to  be  able  to  give. 
The  money  for  a  boiled  sweet  potato  purchased  near 
the  school  building  from  a  vendor,  two  rin,  is  saved  by 
taking  a  smaller  potato,  and  the  lunch  is  none  the  less 
palatable  because  the  child  has  made  a  little  sacrifice,  and 
these  two  rin,  as  they  rattle  in  the  collection  box,  are  music 
in  his  ears  and  joy — the  joy  of  giving, — in  his  heart.  I 
happen  to  be  one  of  the  Auditors  of  the  accounts  at  the 
Leper  Home,  and  this  year  we  closed  the  books  with  deficit, 
— a  debt  of  two  hundred  and  sixteen  yen, — and  we  were 
troubled,  having  no  resources.  I  looked  over  the  Sunday- 
School  collections,  and  found  we  had  in  the  treasury  nearly 
twenty-five  yen,  and  I  told  the  scholars  about  the  dear  little 
girl  just  thirteen,  who  is  a  leper  and  can  never  again  be  well, 
but  is  the  light  of  the  Home.  When  the  women  get 
discouraged  and  cry,  this  little  angel  puts  her  arms  about 
them  and  says,  "Auntie,  dear  Auntie,  don't  cry;  we  will 
soon,  all  of  us,  have  new  bodies."  Two  boys  of  fifteen 
are  there — their  companions  like  themselves  are  lepers. 
"Now,  children,  we  need  money;  you  have  some;  will 
you  give  it  there,  all  or  some  part  of  it?  How  many 
say  all?  Let  us  see  the  hands":  and  every  little  hand, 
kindergarten  and  all,  went  up,  and  we  made  it  twenty- 
five  yen  to  send  to  the  Treasurer  of  our  Leper  Home. 
I  then  told  them  to  tell  their  parents  of  how  we  spend  the 
money  given  by  the  little  ones,  and  we  reviewed  the 
places  we  had  helped  from  our  mite:   For  five  years  aD 


244  The  Child  in  the  Midst 

Ainu  School;  Red  Cross  Society,  two  years;  Charity 
Hospital,  two  years;  Okayama  Orphanage,  two  years; 
destitute  soldiers,  one  year;  comfort  bags  during  war; 
famine  sufferers,  one  year;  flood  sufferers,  one  year; 
earthquake  sufferers,  one  year;  Lepers'  Home,  this  year; 
medicine  for  sick  pupils,  often;  help  at  funerals  for  poor 
families  of  school. 

These  children  when  they  grow  up  and  enter  the  church 
will  be  systematic  givers  and  know  what  benevolence 
is.* 

rfteiteSSLfan  f  ^  brings  tears  to  the  eyes  and  joy  to  the  heart 
1  to  see  how  eagerly  children  of  one  mission  land 
devote  their  little  gifts  to  sending  the  Gospel  to 
children  of  some  other  land.  It  seems  the  most 
natural  thing  in  the  world  to  lead  them  into 
missionary  giving,  and  many  a  children's  band 
in  America  might  be  put  to  shame  by  the  joy 
and  spontaneity  of  those  who  are  themselves 
objects  of  missionary  giving. 

"One  day  early  in  the  fall,"  writes  Miss  Alice  B.  Cald- 
well of  Marsovan,  Turkey,  "while  walking  in  the  school 
garden  I  noticed  two  little  girls  strolling  up  and  down 
the  path  arm  in  arm.  They  were  chattering  in  their 
vivacious  way,  and  one  of  them  was  making  her  crochet 
needle  fly  as  fast  as  her  tongue.  On  my  inquiring  what 
she  was  making,  she  held  up  a  dainty  bag,  and  several 
little  interpreters  informed  me  that  it  was  for  the  Chris- 
tian Endeavor  Bazaar.  After  that  day  I  saw  many  busy 
fingers  on  the  playground  making  the  most  of  the  hours 
out  of  doors. 

"  The  Junior  Endeavorers  help  to  support  a  little  girl 
in  a  Chinese  school,  and  they  were  getting  ready  for  a 
bazaar  to  help  make  the  money  for  their  adopted  child."** 

*  J.  K.  McCauley  in  Foreign  Post,  October,  1908. 
**  Life  and  Light,  April,    1912,  p.   168.    Alice  B.  Caldwell. 


The  Child  at  Work  for  Christ         245 

If  we  are  touched  by  such  stories  as  the  above,  S^ornnfiddT 
which  can  be  multiplied  many  times  over,  what  5^^^to8ave 
is  our  feeling  about  those  who  are  serving  and 
helping  our  own  Christian  land  because  they 
were  won  to  Christ  in  childhood  on  the  mission 
field?  We  are  thinking  of  one  young  woman 
whose  parents  became  Christians  under  mission- 
ary influence,  and  who  grew  up  in  a  Christian 
home  among  many  persecutions  and  adverse  cir- 
cumstances from  without.  When,  in  the  course 
of  time,  her  widowed  mother  immigrated  to 
America,  the  girl,  already  a  devoted  Christian, 
entered  a  training  school  in  this  country.  Today 
she  is  working  in  six  languages  for  thousands  of 
immigrants  in  a  New  England  city, — doing  a 
work  that  few  Americans  could  ever  hope  to 
accomplish.  Merely  as  a  business  investment  or 
a  patriotic  effort,  the  money  contributed  to  the 
Mission  Board,  which  brought  about  this  result, 
has  been  more  than  profitable. 

Here  is  the  record  of  another  good  investment 
made  in  China: — 

Some  years  ago  there  entered  the  True  Light  Seminary 
a  bright  little  girl  of  thirteen,  who,  under  the  wise  and 
gentle  training  of  Miss  Noyes,  gave  her  heart  to  Christ 
and  united  with  the  church,  becoming  thereafter  one  of 
the  best  pupils  in  the  school.  Her  great  desire  was  to 
become  a  teacher,  but  since  three  years  of  age  she  had 
been  betrothed  by  her  father  to  the  son  of  a  heathen 
family — the  betrothal  by  Chinese  law  being  almost  f 
equivalent  to  a  marriage — it  became  her  duty  to  fulfil 
the  promise  made  for  her,  and  at  the  completion  of  her 


246  The  Chad  in  the  Midst 

course  of  study  she  married  the  man  of  her  father's 
choice.  The  marriage  did  not  prove  a  happy  one;  the 
husband's  business  took  him  much  away,  leaving  his 
wife  alone,  and  at  the  end  of  three  years  he  died  suddenly 
of  plague.  The  young  wife,  thus  unexpectedly  set  free 
for  service,  at  once  took'  up  her  desired  work,  and  after 
teaching  for  three  years  in  Hongkong  was  called  to  a 
position  in  a  Congregational  school  in  Canton.  .  . 

In  the  spring  of  1910  it  came  about  that  one  of  the 
benefactions  of  Mr.  Andrew  Carnegie  came  to  the  Occi- 
dental Home  in  San  Francisco,  and  when  the  question 
arose  as  to  what  should  be  done  with  the  gift  it  could  but 
seem  that  the  long-sought  opportunity  had  come  to  se- 
cure a  Chinese  teacher  to  live  with  the  girls  in  the  Home 
and  to  train  them  in  their  own  tongue. 

So  it  came  to  pass  that  Yeung  Mo  Owen,  or  Mrs. 
Yeung,  as  she  is  known  in  America,  led  in  these  various 
ways,  became  an  inmate  of  the  Mission  Home  in  San 
Francisco,  teacher  of  Chinese  to  the  girls,  both  in  the 
Home  and  in  the  Occidental  Board  Day  School,  and 
incidentally  a  blessing  not  only  to  the  Home  and  to  the 
Chinese  Church,  but  also  to  Chinatown,  and  to  the 
Board  itself.  .  . 

"I  have  never  seen  such  a  lovely  face,  never  been  so 
impressed  by  a  Chinese  woman,"  said  one  long  in  the 
work  in  California.  "Now  you  see  what  our  native 
Christian  women  are  like,"  quickly  responded  a  mission- 
ary who  was  present.* 

Missionary  The  story  of  the  Child  at  Work  for  Christ  would 

children  at  .  .  . 

work.  not  be  complete  without  making  mention  of  the 

missionary  children  who  in  such  large  numbers 
are  trying  to  do  their  share  toward  bringing  the 
Kingdom  of  Christ  to  this  world.  "If  one  life 
shines,  the  life  next  to  it  must  catch  the  light," 

*  Woman's   Work,  June,  1912,  p.  144.     Mrs.  E.  F.  Hall,  Berke- 
ley, Cal. 


The  Child  at  Work  for  Christ        247 

and  the  joy  and  privilege  of  mission  service  in 
all  its  beauty, — and  in  all  its  trial  and  discourage- 
ment as  well, — are  well  known  to  the  missionary 
boy  and  girl.  Even  little  four  year  old  Annie 
had  her  share  of  discouragement  when  her  par- 
ents returned  to  their  field  of  work  after  a  fur- 
lough during  which  Annie  had  forgotten  all 
languages  but  English.  When  she  heard  her 
mother  speaking  of  women's  meetings  and 
various  forms  of  work  as  she  took  them  up,  one 
by  one,  Annie  decided  to  do  her  share  also.  Pick- 
ing up  her  dolly,  she  trotted  down  to  the  gate  to 
be  a  missionary  to  the  little  Turkish  girls  next 
door.  Sadly  she  came  back  again  to  report, 
"Mother,  the  children  cannot  speak  the  Ameri- 
can language." 

Let  no  one  think  that  because  missionary 
children  are  "used  to"  the  country  and  the 
language,  the  climate  and  food  and  presence  of 
the  "natives,"  it  is  always  easy  and  natural  for 
them  to  return  to  their  parents'  field  of  labor. 
Just  because  they  have  been  familiar  with  it  all 
from  childhood,  the  surroundings  and  oppor- 
tunities of  the  homeland, — their  own  rightful 
heritage, — seem  desirable  beyond  words  and 
hard  to  relinquish.  To  the  missionary  children 
who  return  to  the  field,  the  halo  of  romance  sur- 
rounding the  step  is  non-existent, — they  go  with 
open  eyes  to  what  they  know  about.  And  yet 
they  go,  large  numbers  of  them,  and  it  might  be 
well  to  ask  of  your  Mission  Boards  whether  their 


248 


The  Child  in  the  Midst 


American 
children  at 
work  for 
Christ. 


services  are  valuable  to  the  cause  or  not.  A 
newspaper  clipping  a  few  years  ago  gave  these 
statistics : — 

"Nearly  one-third  of  the  missionaries  of  the 
American  Board  of  India  and  Ceylon  are  the 
children  or  grandchildren  of  missionaries  who 
were  sent  out  by  the  Board  two  or  three  genera- 
tions ago.  In  the  three  India  missions,  including 
Ceylon,  there  are  now  ninety-five  American  la- 
borers, nineteen  of  whom  were  children  and 
eleven  grandchildren  of  missionaries." 

It  would  be  interesting  to  get  the  statistics 
of  other  Missions  and  Boards  on  this  subject 
and  to  compare  the  results  of  their  work  with 
some  of  the  psychological  statements  quoted  in 
the  early  chapters  of  this  book  regarding  heredity 
and  early  training. 

(   What  part  are  our  own  precious  children  in 

^Christian  America  to  have  in  this  great  sub- 

(ject  — the  Child  at  Work  for  Christ?/ Are  they 

alone  to  be  left  out,  or  to  have  but  a  paltry  share 

in  the  glorious  work  of  giving  the  Gospel  of 

Christ  to  the  whole  world?     If  the  work  is  worth 

doing,  if  the  result  justifies  the  effort,  if  the 

children  of  the  world  need  Christ,  then  it  is  unjust, 

unfair,  un-Christian,  to  deny  our  children  a  share 

in  the  labor  and  the  reward.     Nor  may  we  deny 

them  the  training  and  teaching  that  will  make 

them  realize  not  only  the  need,  but— the  one 

i  only  adequate  way  in  which  that  need  may  be 

satisfied.    A  few  words  from  the  pen  of  Dr, 


The  Child  at  Work  for  Christ         249 

WiUiam  Adams  Brown  emphasize  very  practi- 
cally the  need  of  this   "only  adequate  way." 
There  are  many  persons  today  who  are  ready  to  recog-  The,  one  great 

4,      ,  -        ,  ,     ,  ...  .     .  .       .        need  of  the 

raze  the  beneficent  work  done  by  foreign  missionaries  for   world. 

the  social  welfare  of  the  peoples  among  whom  they  have 
been  working,  who  have  no  sympathy  with  the  religious 
motives  which  animate  them.  Why,  they  ask,  can  we 
not  have  the  hospital  and  the  school  without  the  doc- 
trines that  go  with  them?-  They  forget  that  it  is  faith  in 
the  realities  which  the  doctrines  express  which  alone  has 
made  the  missionary  enterprise  possible.  Had  it  not 
been  for  the  belief  that  man  is  an  immortal  spirit  capable 
of  communion  with  God,  and  meant  for  fellowship  with 
Him  throughout  all  eternity,  we  should  have  had  no 
Livingstone  or  Moffatt  or  Paton.  James  Russell  Lowell 
saw  this  clearly  when  he  spoke  the  striking  sentences 
which  have  often  been  quoted,  but  which  will  bear  quot- 
ing again : — 

"When  the  keen  scrutiny  of  skeptics  has  found  a  place 
on  this  planet  where  a  decent  man  may  live  in  decency, 
comfort,  and  security,  supporting  and  educating  his  chil- 
dren unspoiled  and  unpolluted,  a  place  where  age  is 
reverenced,  infancy  protected,  womanhood  honored,  and 
human  life  held  in  due  regard, — when  skeptics  can  find 
such  a  place  ten  miles  square  on  this  globe,  where  the 
Gospel  of  Christ  has  not  gone  before  and  cleared  the  way 
and  laid  foundations  that  made  decency  and  security 
possible,  it  will  then  be  in  order  for  these  skeptical  literati 
to  move  thither  and  there  ventilate  their  views.  But  so 
long  as  these  men  are  dependent  on  the  very  religion 
which  they  discard  for  every  privilege  they  enjoy,  they 
may  well  hesitate  to  rob  the  Christian  of  his  hope  and 
humanity  of  its  faith  in  the  Saviour  who  alone  has  given 
to  men  that  hope  of  eternal  life  which  makes  life  tolerable 
and  society  possible,  and  robs  death  of  its  terrors  and  the 
grave  of  its  gloom."  * 

*  "The  Christian  Hope,"  W.  A.  Brown,  p.  200.    (Scribner.) 


250 


The  Child  in  the  Midst 


Children 
trained  to 
systematic 
giving. 


From  Chicago 
to  India. 


Is  there  anything  more  beautiful  and  spon- 
taneous than  the  generosity  of  a  child  who  has 
learned  to  give  to  others  because  of  its  love  for 
Christ?  The  churches  that  are  systematically 
training  their  children  to  give  have  a  great 
future  before  them. 

Says  The  Spirit  of  Missions:  "There  is  an  old  Scotch 
proverb  that  'Mony  a  mickle  maks  a  muckle.'  Nowhere 
is  this  more  effectively  demonstrated  than  in  the  Lenten 
offering  given  each  year  by  the  Sunday-Schools  of  the 
church.  This  movement  was  begun  thirty-five  years 
ago  in  the  diocese  of  Pennsylvania,  and  almost  at  once 
it  spread  throughout  the  church.  Year  by  year  the 
volume  of  gifts  has  grown,  until  for  the  whole  period  they 
have  reached  the  amazing  sum  of  $2,618,290.86.  The 
gifts  which  have  produced  this  result  have  come  from 
all  quarters  of  the  earth  and  from  all  manner  of  children. 
Youngsters  in  Alaska  have  shovelled  snow  and  others  in 
California  have  raised  flowers  to  earn  their  money  for  this 
purpose.  The  negro  boys  and  girls  of  Africa,  the  peons 
of  Mexico,  the  Igorotes  of  the  Philippines,  and  the  brown 
and  yellow  children  of  Japan  and  China  have  gathered 
the  odd  coins  of  their  several  countries  in  common  with 
the  children  of  the  mountains  and  prairies,  the  small  towns 
and  the  great  cities  of  the  United  States."  * 

One  who  had  spent  some  years  in  India  tells 
of  an  experience  in  Chicago  that  brings  the  quick 
tears  to  one's  eyes. 

"I  had  been  telling  the  children  at  Olivet 
Institute  in  Chicago  of  the  little  girls  in  Fatehgarh 
who  called  Christmas  the  Great  Day  and  who 
had  never  had  any  Great  Day  to  look  forward  to 


*  Missionary  Review  of  the  World,  April,  1913,  p.  315. 


The  Child  at  Work  for  Christ         251 

at  all  until  they  had  come  to  the  mission  school; 
of  Gunga  De,  who  had  worked  so  hard  to  deserve 
a  doll  on  the  Great  Day  and  learned  the  Beati- 
tudes and  her  psalms  and  prayers,  only  to  have 
her  Hindu  father  take  her  away  to  bathe  in  the 
Ganges  so  that  she  would  miss  the  prize  giving, 
and  of  her  joy  when  she  found  the  doll  waiting 
for  her  the  next  day.  Afterwards  as  I  stood 
waiting  for  the  car  on  a  dreary  sordid  Halstead 
Street  corner,  a  little  stranger  who  had  wandered 
into  the  meeting  came  and  stood  beside  me.  • 
A  thin  shawl  was  over  her  head,  and  the  hand 
that  held  it  together  under  her  chin  was  thin  and 
blue  with  the  cold.  There  were  dark  circles 
under  her  eyes,  and  the  little  face  had  no  look 
of  childhood  about  it. 

"  'Say,  missus,'  she  began,  'you  forgot  some- 
thing.' 

"  'What  did  I  forget?'  I  asked,  puzzled. 

"  'You  forgot  to  tell  us  how  we  could  send 
things  to  those  children  out  in  India.  I've  got 
a  doll — she  has  no  head — but  I  like  her — and 
two  picture  cards.  Maybe  I  will  get  some 
more,  so  I  would  like  to  send  those.'  "* 

We  can  almost  hear  the  Master  say  of  the 
little,  pitiful,  weary-eyed  child,  "Whosoever 
shall  humble  himself  as  this  little  child,  the  same 
is  the  greatest  in  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven." 

Perhaps  some  mother  may  fear  that  if  she  ^hluSln°ur 
trains  her  child  to  feel  a  personal  responsibility 

*  The    Continent,   March    27,     1913,     "Dolls    from   Chicago  to 
Fatehgarh,  India,"  Louise  Atherton  Dickey. 


252  The  Chile*  in  the  Midst 

for  the  children  of  far-off  lands  the  day  may 
come  when  the  dear  one  will  look  into  her  face 
and  say,  "Mother,  I  must  go.  I  hear  the  call 
to  tell  others  of  the  Christ  whom  I  love !"  Blessed 
is  that  mother  who  can  answer,  though  there 
may  be  a  sharp  catch  of  the  breath  and  a  tighten- 
ing of  the  heart  strings,  "If  He  call  thee,  thou  shalt 
say,  'Speak,  Lord,  for  thy  servant  heareth.'  " 
A  mother  can  never  afford  to  let  her  child  lose 
out  of  its  life  the  very  best  and  highest  possi- 
.  bility,  and  when  God  calls  to  a  service,  there  is 
nothing  greater  that  can  come  to  a  life  than  the 
blessing  found  in  the  pathway  of  obedience. 

What  do  the  children  of  the  world  most  need? 
Who  is  going  to  supply  that  need? 
How  is  it  to  be  accomplished? 
How  quickly  shall  it  be  done? 

In  the  name  of  the  little  Child  of  Bethlehem  let 
every  Christian  woman  answer  these  questions 
honestly  and  prayerfully,  opening  wide  her  heart 
of  hearts  to  love  and  care  and  work  for  The 
Child  in  the  Midst. 
nehed8Wt°h!d  A   traveller   was   visiting   several    missionary 

Holy  Child.  lands,  and  while  in  Korea  had  the  joy  of  training 
•twenty-four  missionary  children  for  an  exercise 
in  the  Gospel  of  Luke.  She  says,  "As  one  little 
boy  stood  before  an  audience  to  repeat  the  lines 
quoted  below,  it  seemed  a  call  to  the  Christian 
world  for  the  children: 


The  Child  at  Work  for  Christ         253 

"The  world  was  dark  with  care  and  woe,  'rf  * 

With  brawl  and  pleasure  wild;  ^a^/  .x^ 

When  in  the  midst,  His  love  to  show,  ^^^o&v&i-  , 
God  set  a  Child.  J^ 

"The  sages  frowned,  their  heads  they  shook, 

For  pride  their  heart  beguiled. 

They  said,  each  looking  on  his  book, 

'We  want  no  Child.' 

| 

"The  merchants  turned  toward  their  scales, 

Around  their  wealth  they  piled; 
Said  they, '  'Tis  gold  alone  prevails; 

'We  want  no  Child.' 

"The  soldiers  rose  in  noisy  sport; 

Disdainfully  they  smiled; 
And  said, '  Can  babes  the  shield  support? 

'We  want  no  Child.' 

"Then  said  the  Lord;  'O  world  of  care, 

So  blinded  and  beguiled, 
Thoujnust  receive  for  thy  repair 

A  Holy  Child/  "* 

QUOTATIONS 

PRAYING  CHILDREN  IN  KOREA 

Sometimes  little  children  learn  about  Jesus  in  some  way 
and  become  Christians  before  their  parents  do.  Three 
years  ago,  after  a  meeting  in  the  country  at  a  place  called 
Top  Chai,  in  Korea,  two  small  boys,  each  nine  years  old, 

*  Miss  Caroline  L.  Palmer  in  Missionary  Review  of  the  World, 
Jan.,  1913. 


254  The  Child  in  the  Midst 

came  up  and  told  me  that  they  were  friends  and  had  been 
believing  in  Jesus  for  a  year,  but  that  none  of  their  par- 
ents had  been  Christians.  They  said,  "We  want  you  to 
pray  every  day  with  us  that  our  parents  may  believe  in 
Jesus."  I  wrote  their  names  in  a  little  book  and  did 
pray  as  they  asked  me  to,  and  every  time  I  met  the  boys 
after  that  I  would  ask  if  their  parents  had  become  Chris- 
tians yet.  "No,"  they  would  say,  "not  yet,  but  they 
are  going  to."  Last  spring,  just  before  I  left  Korea,  I 
went  to  Top  Chai  to  say  good-bye,  and  one  of  the  boys 
came  to  me  with  the  brightest  smile  you  ever  saw  and 
said,  "My  father  has  been  sick  for  a  long  time  but  is  better 
now,  and  has  promised  to  come  to  church  just  as  soon  as 
he  is  able."  And  back  of  him  stood  the  other  boy  hold- 
ing a  smaller  boy  by  the  hand.  "Pastor,"  he  said,  "this 
is  my  younger  brother,  who  has  become  a  Christian,  and 
my  father  has  been  coming  to  church  all  winter." 

A  bright,  manly  little  fellow  in  my  church  in  Pyeng 
Yang  had  been  a  Christian  only  about  a  year  when  he 
succeeded  in  getting  his  mother  to  come  to  church  with 
him.  Soon  after  the  mother  decided  to  be  a  Christian, 
this  boy  became  very  sick  and  his  mother  was  very  angry 
at  God  about  it.  "See,"  she  said,  "this  is  what  I  get  for 
being  a  Christian."  He  plead  with  her  not  to  feel  that 
way  about  it,  and  tried  to  get  her  to  pray  with  him;  but 
she  refused,  saying,  "I  will  never  pray  again."  One  day, 
just  before  he  died,  he  held  out  his  hands  to  her,  saying, 
"Mother,  come  pray  with  me  now,"  but  she  turned  her 
face  away  and  sat  down  in  a  corner,  and  he  began  praying 
alone  in  Korean,  "Hanale  Kai  sin,  uri  abage,"  "Our 
Father  who  art  in  Heaven,"  and,  as  he  was  praying,  he 
died.  The  next  day  his  poor  mother  came  to  our  house 
and  told  my  wife  all  about  it  and  cried  as  if  her  heart 
would  break  because  she  had  let  him  die  without  praying 
with  him.  I  think  God  will  let  this  boy  know  in  some 
way  in  heaven  that  his  mother  did  repent  after  he  went 
away.     (W.  N.  Blair,  The  Fmeign  Post,  May,  1910.) 


The  Child  at  Work  for  Christ         255 

TRAINING   THE   CHILDREN  OF   THE   PACIFIC 
ISLANDS 

In  1888,  Rev.  W.  Wyatt  Gill,  in  a  meeting  in  London, 
gave  a  statement  of  his  work  as  a  missionary  in  the 
Hervey  Islands  since  1851.  "He  spoke  of  the  former 
condition  of  the  people,  of  their  love  of  revenge  and  of 
their  human  sacrifices,  of  the  bloody  feuds  that  existed 
among  them,  of  the  rule,  followed  by  all,  of  keeping  alive 
only  two  children  in  the  family,  and  of  the  whole  aspect 
of  their  lives  as  something  fearful;  and  stated  that  all  this 
had  been  changed  through  the  influence  of  Christianity. 
He  remarked  that  to  see  a  people  who  were  once  canni- 
bals partaking  of  the  Lord's  Supper  has  been  most  delight- 
ful. Looking  around  upon  the  assembly  gathered  for 
this  purpose  he  had  seen  the  bread  administered  by  one 
to  a  man  whose  father  that  man  had  murdered,  or  the 
reverse.  He  stated  that  the  work  of  evangelization  in 
many  of  the  South  Pacific  Islands  had  been  done  almost 
entirely  by  natives  trained  in  the  Avarua  School;  that 
hundreds  of  these  natives  have  sacrificed  their  lives  to 
carry  the  Gospel  to  their  brethren,  and  that  sixty  of  Mr. 
Gill's  own  church  have  been  killed  while  acting  as  mis- 
sionaries. (Alexander,  "Islands  of  the  Pacific,"  p.  121. 
Am.  Tract  Soc.) 

INFLUENCE  OF  A  PICTURE  CARD 

Once  a  month  we  give  each  girl  a  picture  card.  These 
were  sent  to  us  by  children  in  American  Sunday-Schools, 
and  each  time  we  explain  to  the  child  that  the  card  was 
sent  by  a  little  boy  or  girl  in  far-away  America.  One  day 
on  our  way  home  we  stopped  at  a  shop,  and  two  of  our 
little  girls  seeing  us  drew  near  with  the  cards  in  hand. 
A  man  sitting  by  asked  one,  a  clever  little  girl,  where  she 
got  her  picture.  She  didn't  say,  "My  teacher  gave  it 
to  me,"  but  answered,  "A  little  girl  in  far-away  America 
sent  it  to  me."     His  next  question,  "Why  did  she  send 


256  The  Child  in  the  Midst 

it  to  you?"  To  which  she  replied,  "Because  she  loves 
me!"  Then,  as  he  continued  to  question  her,  she  began 
to  explain  the  picture.  It  happened  to  be  Christ  deliver- 
ing the  Sermon  on  the  Mount.  It  was  only  a  child-like 
explanation  given  by  a  child  of  seven  or  eight  years,  but 
the  man  was  really  interested.  As  we  wended  our  way 
I  thought  of  the  hundred  and  twenty-seven  cards  we  had 
given  out  that  day,  and  the  many  hundreds  that  had  been 
given  in  days  past,  and  wondered  how  many  real  Christian ' 
sermons  had  been  preached  by  little  Hindu  and  Moham- 
medan girls  by  means  of  these  small  cards.  (Woman's 
Work,  April,  1912,  Bessie  Lawton,  Fatehgarh.) 

BIBLE  READING 

Revealed  unto  Babes — Expressed  by  Babes. 

Luke  2:  41^9.    Matt.   11:25,   27.     Matt.  21 :  14-16. 

The  things  that  are  hidden  from  the  wise  and  prudent 
are  understood  by  children.  How  near  a  child  is  to  the 
Heart  of  the  Great  Infinite;  how  naturally  he  expresses 
his  love  and  praise.  As  the  twelve-year  old  Boy  in  the 
Temple  understood  His  connection  with  His  Father's 
work,  as  the  children  in  the  Temple  comforted  the  sor- 
rowing Saviour  with  their  praise,  so  the  children  of  today 
may  understand  and  do  for  Christ  what  the  wise  and 
prudent  cannot. 

"We  are  facing  tremendous  problems  and  great  con- 
tests which  our  children  have  got  to  settle.  Can  we  not 
educate  these  men  and  women  of  tomorrow  in  the  world 
brotherhood  that  goes  back  through  all  the  centuries  and 
finds  its  beginning  in  the  heart  of  the  Boy  of  Twelve?" 
L.  W.  Peabody. 

PRAYER 

We  beseech  Thee,  O  most  merciful  Father,  for  all  Thy 
little  children  who  dwell  in  darkness  and  in  the  shadow 
of  evil  that  is  in  the  world,'  that  it  may  please  Thee  to 


The  Child  at  Work  for  Christ         257 

have  pity  on  them,  and  to  gather  them  by  the  kindly 
hand  of  Thy  true  servants,  into  the  light  of  the  Christian 
fold,  that  they  may  sit  at  the  feet  of  Jesus  and  learn  of 
Him.  So  let  Thy  truth  be  manifest  from  generation  to 
generation,  and  the  whole  family  of  mankind  rejoice 
together  in  Thy  mercy,  through  Jesus  Christ,  the  Saviour 
of  the  world.    Amen.     (The  Book  of  Common  Prayer.) 

QUESTIONS 

1.  What  are  some  of  the  problems  that  must  in  all 
probability  be  confronted  fifteen  years  hence  in  China? 
in  Japan?  in  India?  in  Thibet?  Turkey?  in  Central  Africa? 

2.  What  agencies,  native  and  foreign,  are  preparing 
children  to  solve  these  problems? 

3.  How  are  the  children  of  your  home  and  church  and 
community  being  trained  along  missionary  lines? 

4.  What  are  you  doing  to  help  them? 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 

A  Little  Child  Shall  Lead  Them.    Worn.  Bd.  For.  Miss. 

Ref .  Ch.  in  Am. 
The  Black  Bishop,  Jesse  Page.     (Revell.) 
The  Islands  of  the  Pacific,  Alexander.     (Am.  Tract  Soc.) 

See  current  newspapers  and  magazines  for  up-to-date 
material  for  this  chapter. 


APPENDIX 
CHAPTER  VII. 

THE  MOTHER  AND  THE   CHRIST-CHILD 

"Behold  the  handmaid  of  the  Lord." 

It  is  suggested  that  at  some  convenient  time 
during  the  Christmas  season  a  mass  meeting 
be  held  for  the  mothers  of  the  community. 
Special  efforts  should  be  made  to  gather  all 
mothers,  as  far  as  possible;  carriages  might  be 
sent  for  the  old  mothers,  for  special  love  and 
deference  is  due  to  them;  and  arrangements  should 
be  made  for  care  of  babies,  so  that  young  mothers 
may  be  free  to  attend. 

If  so  desired,  the  program  may  include  selec- 
tions of  stories  and  quotations  from  the  fore- 
going chapters,  and  some  of  the  prayers  may 
be  used.  Let  all  Christian  mothers  gather  to 
pray  and  plan  for  the  children  of  the  world,  in 
the  Name  of  the  little  Child  of  Bethlehem. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

THE  MOTHER  AND  THE  CHRIST-CHILD 

"Behold  the  handmaid  of  the  Lord." 
BIBLE  READING 


Luke  1:26-35,  38,  46-55  &  2:19,  51. 

The  angel  addressed  the  holy  mother  as 
"highly  favored,"  "the  Lord  with  thee."  God's 
presence  in  her  life  was  a  reason  why  she  could 
be  trusted  with  the  greatest  responsibility  ever 
given  to  a  woman,  to  bring  up,  to  teach  and  guard 
the  most  wonderful  child  ever  born.  Contrast 
how  royal  princesses  are  seldom  entrusted  with 
the  care  and  training  of  future  kings  and  em- 
perors. 

Vs.  46-55.  Mary's  appreciation  of  what  God 
had  done  for  her  personally, — her  wider  vision 
of  what  her  experience  was  to  mean  to  the  world. 
She  accepted  the  trust  and  believed  the  amazing 
promise,  (v.  38)  but  realized  that  the  present  and 
future  generations  were  to  share  in  the  blessing 
(vs.  48,  54,  55.) 

Ch.  2:19,  51.  Mary  kept  in  her  heart  all  the 
strange,  wonderful  occurrences,  pondering  them, 


262  The  Child  in  the  Midst 

trying  to  understand  God's  dealings,  and  to  bring 
herself  and  her  actions  into  line  with  them.  She 
realized  that  hers  was  an  unusual  task,  and  set 
herself  to  watch  and  understand  its  meaning. 

PRAYER 

Oh  Lord,  our  Heavenly  Father,  we  pray  for 
Thy  rich  blessing  upon  this  gathering  of  mothers, 
and  upon  the  mothers  of  this  community.  Grant 
to  each  one  of  our  children  those  blessings  of 
body,  mind,  and  soul  which  Thou  seest  they 
most  need.  Grant  to  each  father  and  mother 
the  wisdom,  love,  and  courage,  and,  above  all,  the 
personal  acquaintance  with  Thee  that  shall  enable 
them  to  train  their  children  for  useful,  happy, 
Christian  manhood  and  womanhood,  and  to 
love  and  serve  Thee  for  time  and  for  eternity. 

We  beseech  Thee,  in  the  name  of  the  Holy 
Child  of  Bethlehem,  to  remember  our  homes  and 
the  homes  of  the  whole  earth  with  Thy  Fatherly 
blessing.  Guard  little  children  throughout  the 
world  from  sin  and  sorrow  and  suffering,  from 
cruel  neglect  and  oppression,  from  growing  up 
in  vice  and  ignorance.  Stir  the  hearts  of  Thy 
servants  at  this  glad  time  of  the  Children's 
Festival,  to  take  the  knowledge  of  the  blessed 
Christ-Child  to  the  remotest  corners  of  the 
earth,  that  all  children  may  learn  to  know  Him, 
and  may  grow  up  into  His  likeness. 

We  ask  it  in  the  name  of  Thy  Holy  Child  Jesus. 
Amen. 


The  Mother  and  the  Christ-Child       263 

"  Holy  night!  peaceful  night! 
Through  the  darkness  beams  a  light 
Yonder,  where  they  sweet  vigils  keep 
O'er  the  Babe,  who,  in  silent  sleep, 
Rests  in  heavenly  peace. 

"  Silent  night!  holiest  night! 
Darkness  flies  and  all  is  light! 
Shepherds  hear  the  angels  sing — 
'Hallelujah!  hail  the  King! 
Jesus  Christ  is  here!' 

"  Silent  night!  holiest  night! 
Wondrous  Star!  oh,  lend  thy  light! 
With  the  angels  let  us  sing, 
Hallelujah  to  our  King! 
Jesus  Christ  is  here! " 

What  a  significant  fact  it  is  that,  of  all  religions, 
Christianity  is  the  only  one  which  lays  emphasis 
on  the  childhood  of  its  Founder!  Mohammedan 
tradition*  weaves  the  most  marvelous  and  fan- 
tastic tales  about  the  infancy  and  childhood  of 
the  man  who  founded  it,  though  none  of  these  are 
mentioned  in  the  Koran.  But  how  different 
are  these  extravagant  and  often  disgusting  stories, 
from  the  wonderful  Gospel  story  of  the  Christ- 

Ghild. 

No  other  child  ever  born  into  this  wojld  has 
had  such  honor  done  to  the  event  of  his  birth,  or 
has  been  able  to  inspire  in  millions  of  hearts 
through  generation  after  generation  the  joy  of 
remembering  others,  the  delight  of  expressing 
love  by  gifts,  the  glory  of  "goodwill  among  men," 
that  mark  the  Christmas  time. 


264  The  Child  in  the  Midst 

Few  of  those  who  live  in  a  Christian  land  can 
realize  the  effect  of  the  mere  observance  of  the 
Christmas  festival  on  those  who  never  heard  of 
Christ.  Christmas  Day,  although  of  course  not 
celebrated  by  non-Christians,  is  nevertheless 
called  in  India  "the  great  day  of  the  year,"  by 
thousands  of  Hindus  and  Mohammedans.  Dr. 
Badley  of  Lucknow,  in  commenting  on  the  fact, 
says; — 

"The  heathen  people  of  course  do  not  celebrate 
Christmas;  they  know  that  Christians  do,  how- 
ever, and  this  simple  fact,  so  constantly  observed, 
causes  them  to  think  about  the  power  of  Chris- 
tianity. Many  are  led  to  ask,  'Who  was  Christ? 
What  did  He  do?  Why  do  the  Christians  ob- 
serve His  birthday?'  These  inquiries  call  forth 
various  answers,  discussion  follows,  and  thus  the 
whole  nation  with  its  many  millions  of  people, 
is  thinking  and  talking  about  the  world's 
Saviour." 
(  Would  that  every  mother  in  America  might  have 
a  vision  today  of  a  Christless  home  in  a  Christ- 
less  land,  and  then  of  that  home  transformed, 
and  taking  its  share  in  the  festival  of  the  Christ- 
Child!  J  When  once  the  spirit  of  the  blessed  Christ 
has  touched  a  heart  or  a  home  or  a  community, 
there  is  a  transformation.  Is  there  any  other 
anniversary  that  inspires  the  blessed  joy  of 
giving  that  belongs  to  the  Christmas  season? 
The  Missionary  Link  gives  a  sample  of  what 
Christmas  has  come  to  mean  to  some  Japanese 


The  Mother  and  the  Christ-Child       265 

children  in  Kyoto,  and  the  consequences  of  their 
celebration : — 

"Last  Christmas  the  children  used  the  money 
they  had  collected  in  Sunday-School  to  buy 
charcoal  for  the  poor.  As  they  did  not  know 
to  whom  they  should  give  it,  they  asked  the 
policeman  to  give  it  to  the  poorest  people  he 
knew.  They  did  not  hear  any  more  about  it  for 
some  time,  when  one  Sunday  an  old  woman  came 
to  Sunday-School,  and  asked  if  this  was  the  place 
where  poor  people  were  helped.  She  then 
thanked  the  children  for  the  charcoal,  telling 
them  it  had  kept  her  warm  most  of  the  winter. 
She  told  them  she  lived  in  a  tiny  room  with 
another  old  woman,  and,  although  she  worked  very 
hard  sewing,  she  could  only  earn  about  three 
cents  a  day.  She  had  no  money  to  buy  charcoal 
to  keep  her  warm,  and  about  Christmas  time 
thought  she  would  throw  herself  into  the  river, 
as  she  was  of  no  use  to  any  one.  Just  at  that 
time  the  children  sent  her  the  charcoal,  so  she 
felt  that  some  one  really  cared  for  her.  She 
helped  in  the  heathen  temple  for  a  little  while, 
but  said  the  people  were  so  unkind  to  her  she 
could  not  stay.  Now  she  is  studying  about  Jesus, 
and  goes  every  week  to  the  Sunday-School." 

If  such  effects  follow  when  little  heathen  chil- 
dren are  taught  the  story  of  Christmas  and  its 
'significance,  why,  oh  why,  should  not  we  moth- 
ers send  the  beautiful  message  to  every  little 
[child  in  the  world? 


266  The  Child  in  the  Midst 

MOTHERHOOD 
I  see  them  come  crowding,  crowding, 

Children  of  want  and  pain, 
Dark  sorrow  their  eyes  enshrouding, 

Where  joy's  touch  should  have  lain. 

They  stand  in  silence  beseeching, 

Gaunt  faces  lifted  up, 
And  wan  little  hands  outreaching 

For  Love's  forbidden  cup. 

Their  hearts  are  restless  with  yearning, 
The  hearts  of  my  own  are  stilled, 

Their  lips  are  parched  and  burning, 
The  cups  of  my  own  are  filled! 

I  cry  in  love  unsatisfied 

For  these  without  the  fold, 
My  mother's  arms  are  open  wide 

These  weary  ones  to  hold. 

What  though  my  arms  are  open  wide, 

Only  mine  own  lie  near, 
Without  still  stand  those  long  denied, 

Compassed  in  want  and  fear. 

Bowed  with  the  crown  of  Motherhood, 

I  seek  that  Shepherd  of  old; 
"How  can  mine  own  receive  the  good 
With  some  left  out  of  the  fold?" 
(Isabel    Kimball    Whiting    in    The    Survey.     By   per- 
mission.) 

'  Is  it  enough  for  us  to  plan  that  our  own  chil- 
dren and  those  near  and  dear  to  us  shall  be  made 
happy  by  our  Christmas  tokens  of  love  and 
remembrance?  Truly  it  is  such  a  busy,  rushing 
time  that  even  our  regular  church  work  must 


The  Mother  and  the  Christ-Child       267 

often  be  set  aside  that  the  Christmas  obligations 
may  be  met.  But  a  true  mother  heart  is  big 
enough  to  take  in  more,  and  ever  more,  and  the 
blessing  of  growth  is-  bestowed  on  each  heart  that 
opens  to  admit  new  objects  of  love. 

"Recently,"  says  the  Outlook,  "a  tender, 
gentle,  refined  woman  who  has  identified  herself 
with  those  movements  which  seek  to  improve 
the  conditions  of  child  life,  said,  'I  have  had  a 
new  thought  come  to  me  that  has  made  me  accept 
the  loss  of  my  little  girl  with  patience,  almost 
with  resignation.  God  never  meant  that  a 
woman  should  be  the  mother  to  just  one  little 
girl.  He  meant  that  every  woman  should  be 
mother  to  every  child  in  the  world.'  " 

"How  I  wish  I  could  give  a  Christmas  present 
to  Jesus!"  said  a  loving  little  girl,  her  eyes  danc- 
ing with  Christmas  joy  as  she  surveyed  the 
small  gifts,  so  long  planned  and  carefully  pre- 
pared for  her  dear  ones.  For  her  the  very  es- 
sence of  Christmas  was  its  expression  in  visible 
tokens  to  those  whom  she  loved,  uf  we  mothers 
long  to  "give  a  Christmas  present  to  Jesus," 
what  could  be  more  acceptable  to  Him,  than  the 
dedication  of  an  hour  of  this  busy,  happy  Christ- 
mas season  to  loving  prayer  and  thought  for 
.  the  mothers  and  children  in  our  own  community 
and  throughout  the  wide  world?)  Thus  shall  we 
be  drawn  near  to  the  heart  of  tne  great  Father,  s 
and,  if  during  this  hour  some  angel  messenger 
whispers  to  our  hearts  of  a  special  task  which 


268  The  Child  in  the  Midst 

He  is  willing  to  entrust  to  us,  mav  we  he  rpndy 
to  answer  with  Mary  of  old, — "Behold  the  hand- 
maid of  the  Lord;    be  it  unto  me  according  to 
thy  word!" 
/     What  blessings  shall  we  ask  for  the  mothers  of 
/    the  world?    What  do  we  need  for  ourselves? 
/     Unselfish    love,    infinite    patience,    wisdom   and 
/      insight,  tact  and  sympathy,  health  to  bear  the 
I       daily  strain,  quiet  nerves,  a  sense  of  humor  that 
\      smooths  rough  places,  a  sweet,  strong  cheerful- 
'     ness,  a  likeness  to  Christ  that  shall  be  reflected  in 
the  lives  of  all  the  members  of  the  household. 
"According  to  the  riches  of  His  grace,"  He  is 
waiting  to  bestow  His  blessings  on  the  mother 
hearts  waiting  here  before  Him,   and  through 
their  intercession,  on  the  mother  hearts  of  the 
world. 

What  blessings  shall  we  ask  for  the  children 
of  the  world?  The  same  that  we  ask  for  our 
own  as  we  kneel  at  their  bedside,  and  our  eyes 
are  dim  with  tears  of  yearning  love,  while  we 
pray  that  our  darlings  may  be  kept  from  harm 
and  accident,  from  all  soul  stains,  that  they 
may  "grow  in  wisdom  and  stature  and  in  favor 
with  God  and  man."  Is  there  any  blessing  vou 
ask  for  yoi^r  bov  and  girl  t.Vm.t  fa  not,  TinfiHnd  by; 

fhft  nthpr  CJaldlSB  nf  the  V"rM?- 

/     "Prayer  is  cheap,"  some  say,  "it  costs  nothing 

/  to  say  a  prayer  for  missions."    Real  prayer  is 

I    n£$    chgaj), — it    costs    the    deepest,    strongest 

^thought  one  can  expend;   it  costs  time;   it  costs 


The  Mother  and  the  Christ-Child      269 

the  willingness  to  help  to  answer  one's  own  pray-  1 
ers  in  terms  of  interest  and  gifts  and  service. 
In  Christ's  name,  then,  let  us  pray,  and  let  us 
not  rest  nor  be  satisfied  until  every  mother  in 
the  world,  clasping  her  child  to  her  bosom,  is  J 
truly  a  holy  mother,  and  every  little  child  is  a 
holy  child. 


INDEX 


Addams,  Miss  Jane,  p.  92. 
"  Age  of  the  Child,"  p.  4. 
American  children  at  work,  pp. 

248,  251,  252. 
Anti-foot-binding  movement,  p. 

33. 
Applied  Christianity,  p.  17. 

Bathing,  pp.  22,  23. 
Bible,  place   of   the  child  in,  p. 
197 ;  the  power  of,  pp.  207,  208. 
Bible   reading,   pp.  41,  82,  128, 

172,  216,  256,  261. 
Bibliography,    pp.   42,   84,  128, 

173,  218,  257. 

Blind  children,  pp.  118,  120. 
Bunker,  Alonzo,  p.  6. 
Burma,  a  home  in,  p.  55. 
Burma,  Christian  children  in,  p. 

243. 
Burnett,  Mrs.  Frances  Hodgson, 

p.  9. 

Caste,  India,  p.  213. 

Childbirth,  China,  p.  39;  suffer- 
ing during,  pp.  13,  14. 

Child  labor,  among  Bedouins, 
p.  104;  in  Africa,  p.  104;  in 
Persia,  pp.  105,  106;  in  many 
lands,  p.  105;  need  of  public 
sentiment  concerning,  p.  103. 

Child  marriage,  India,  pp.  68-72, 
79. 

Child  slavery,  pp.  107-110. 

Child  training,  Persia,  pp.  58, 59. 

Child  wives,  Persia,  p.  81;  In- 
dia, p.  10. 

Child  welfare  agencies,  p.  5. 

Child  at  worship,  Thibet,  p.  180 ; 
India,  pp.  180,  181;  Moslem 
lands,  pp.  181,  182;  Africa, 
pp.  183,  184. 

Children,  of  India,  needs  of,  p. 
3;  of  Persia,  p.  4  ;  of  Syria,  p. 
3 ;  importance  of,  p.  8. 

Children's  pavilion,  Beirut, p.  38. 

China's  awakening,  p.  227. 
Chinese,   mother  ideal,  p.  57; 


mothers,   p.    10;   mothers   in 

council,  p.  231. 
Christ  needs  the  children,  p.  223. 
Christianity,  in  the  home,  p.  78  ; 

place  of  child  in,  p.  263. 
Christmas,  in  India,  p.  264;   in 

Japan,  p.  265. 
Clothing,  p.  23-24. 
Cochran,  Mrs.  James,  p.  21. 
Confucianism,  attitude  towards 

girls,  p.  21;  and  Christianity, 

pp.  187,  188. 
Conservation    of    human    re- 
sources, p.  8. 
Contagious  diseases,  pp.  34-37. 
Curtis,  Wm.  E.,  p.  235,. 
Crowther,   Bishop   Samuel   A., 

pp.  237-239. 

Dale,  Mrs.  G.  F.,  p.  38. 

Deaf  and  Dumb  children,  pp. 
118,  119. 

Defective  and  dependent  chil- 
dren, pp.  110-124. 

Death  of  children,  pp.  196,  197. 

Discipline,  lack  of,  p.  58. 

Devine,  Dr.  E.  T.,  pp.6,  31,  52. 

Dolls,  in  Central  Africa,  p.  126. 

Dying  child's  doll,  pp.  101-103. 

Education,  Africa,  pp.  170,  171; 
divergent  views  on,  pp.  136- 
138;  Japan,  pp.  139,  140; 
China,  p.  141;  India,  pp.  141, 
142;  Persia,  pp.  142-144,154, 
234;  Turkey,  pp.  142-144; 
Siam,  pp.  168,  169 ;  extent  of 
American  Missionary,  pp,163, 
164 ;  among  backward  nations, 
pp.  151-153;  of  future  moth- 
ers, p.  156. 

Egypt,  Lord  Cromer  on,  p.  155. 

Eugenics,  pp.  9-11. 

Evil  Eye,  pp.  15-16. 

Evil  spirits,  p.  17. 

Exner,  Dr.,  p.  28. 

Family  life,  foundations  of,  p. 
65. 


Index 


271 


Famine  waifs,  pp.  116,  117. 

Fathers,  position  of,  pp.  61-64; 
Egyptian,  p.  02;  African,  p. 
62;  transformed  by  Christian- 
ity, p.  63. 

Feast  day,  Arabia,  p.  124. 

Feast  of  dolls,  Japan,  p.  93. 

Feast  of  flags,  p.  94. 

Feeding,  pp.  26-28. 

Foerster,  Dr.  F.  W.  on  educa- 
tion and  Christianity,  pp.  144, 
145. 

Foot-binding,  pp.  32,  33. 

Games,  pp.  95-99. 
Girls,  mothers  of,  pp.  64,  65. 
Giving  to  missions,  pp.  243,  244, 
251;  systematic,  p.  250. 

Harrison,  Elizabeth,  p.  128. 

Health,  pp.  31-32. 

Heathen  baby,  A,  p.  213. 

Heredity,  pp.  9,  10. 

Hindu  Vedas,  p.  186. 

Holy  Child,  The,  pp.  252,  253. 

"Holy  Night,"  p.  263. 

Home,  the  center  of  a  nation's 
life,  pp.  52-54;  a  transformed, 
p.  79;  a  Mohammedan  in  Per- 
sia, p.  47 ;  a  heathen  in  Africa, 
p.   49;   a  Christian   in   Zulu- 

.    land,  p.  51. 

Homes,  disorderly,  p.  54;  how 
to  bring  Christ  to,  pp.  72,  73. 

Hygiene,  pp.  28-29. 

Hymns,  p.  208. 

Idol  worship,  pp.  190,  191. 
India,  infanticide  in,  pp.  19-21 ; 

work  for  children  of,  pp.  232, 

233. 
Industrial  training,  p.  163. 
Infant  mortality,  pp.  24,  25. 
Infanticide,  pp.  18-21. 
Influence  of   a   picture  card,  p. 

255. 
Influences,  moral  and  immoral, 

pp.  56-58. 
Illiteracy,  statistics,  pp.  138, 139  ; 

Sir  J.  O.  Rees  on,  p.  139. 
Innocence,  absence  of,  p.  55. 


Japan,  changes  in,  pp.  224-227. 
Japan,    Imperial  University,  p. 

225. 
Junior  Endeavor,  pp.  205-206. 

Kashmir,  the  athletic  method 
in,  pp.  159,  160. 

Kindergarten  children  grown 
up,  p.  226. 

Kindergartens,  need  of  Chris- 
tian, pp.  147-149. 

Kindergartners,  qualifications 
of,  p.  150;  a  West  African, 
pp.  150,  151;  Union,  Japan, 
pp.  145-147 ;  China,  p.  147. 

Koran,  p.  185. 

Korea,  praying  children  in,  pp. 
253,  254;  Christian  children 
in,  p.  242. 

Languages  used  in  Presbyterian 

schools,  p.  164. 
Li  Bi  Cu,  Dr.  pp.  229-231. 
Literature,  need   for   good,  pp. 

161-163. 
Lepers,  pp.  120-124. 
"London    Bridge"    in   Africa, 

pp.  96-97. 

Mary,  the  slave  child,  pp.  109, 
110. 

Marriage,  early,  a  barrier  to  ed- 
ucation, pp.  154,  155. 

Medical  practice  in  non-Chris- 
tian lands,  pp.  34-36,  39. 

Milligan,  Robt.  H.,  p.  11.  " 

Missionary  children,  p.  77;  at 
work,  pp.  246-248. 

Missionary's  dream,  A,  p.  212. 

Missionary  education,  reasons 
for  continuing,  p.  138;  is  it 
needed,  pp.  135-136. 

Missionary  homes,  pp.  74-77 ; 
wives,  pp.  73,  74;  mothers, 
pp.  29,  30. 

Mothers,  ignorant,  pp.  26,  36. 

Mothers'  meetings,  p.  78. 

Motherhood,  protection  of,  p. 
11;  suffering  of,  p.  13;  the 
burden  of,  pp.  64,  70,  71. 


272 


Index 


"  Motherhood  "  (poem),  p.  266, 

Mpongwe,  a  dying  tribe,  pp.  12. 
13. 

Mohammedan  girls,  pp.  66,  67. 

Mohammedan  month  of  mourn- 
ing, p.  190. 

Montessori,  Dr.,  p.  153. 

Moslem  lands,  need  of  women 
doctors,  p.  14. 

Needs  of  childhood,  pp.  3,  4. 
Need   of    the   world,   the     one 

great,  p.  249. 
Non-Christian   religions,    place 

of  child  in,  pp.  185-188. 

Obstacles,  pp.  209,  210. 

"  Organized     motherhood     for 

the  world,"  pp.  5,  54. 
Orphans,    American    massacre, 

pp.  111-113;  Mohammedan,  p 

113. 
Orphanages,  India,  pp.  114,  115 

Pacific   Islands,    pp.  240,    241 

training  children  of,  p.  255. 
Persian  girls, education  of, p.  154 
Persian    "Helen    Keller."    pp 

117,  118. 
Persian  schoolboys,  p.  234. 
Physical  training,  pp.  157-160. 
Play,    teaching  children   to,   p. 

157;  among  the  Lao,  p.  125; 

importance     of,     pp.     90-93; 

stops   early  in   non-Christian 

lands,  pp.  99,  100. 
Playground    Movement,   p.  90 ; 

America  leading  in,  p.  95  ;  in 

Japan,  p.  94. 
Prayer,  pp.  41,  83,  128,  172,  216, 

256,  262. 
"Polishing     Jade     Establish- 
ment," p.  114. 

Questions,  pp.  41,  83,  89,  172, 
217,  257. 

Rights  of  every  child,  p.  7;   of 

every  mother,  p.  7. 
Rite  of  the  broken  pot,  p.  15. 
Religious   acts,   results    of,  pp. 

189-193. 


Religious  needs  of  children,  p. 
184. 

Rescue  homes,  for  slave  chil- 
dren, pp.  108,  109. 

Rescuing  the  servant  of  the 
gods,  pp.  194,  195. 

Saving  a  boy,  China,  p.  127. 

Schools,  the  call  for,  pp.  133- 
135;  missionary,  pp.  165-168; 
Persia,  pp.  169,  170 ;  Kurdish 
Mountains,  pp.  171,  172. 

Sunday  schools,  statistics,  p. 
199;  Japan,  pp.  199-202; 
China,  pp.  202,  215 ;  India,  pp. 
202,  203 ;  Africa,  pp.  203-205. 

Schoff,  Mrs.  Frederick,  p.  8. 

Selden,  Dr.  Chas.  C,  p.  10. 

Sex  instruction,  pp.  60,  61. 

Soldiers  and  babies,  p.  40. 

"  Spirit  of  Play,"  need  of,  pp. 
100,  101. 

Spirit  worship,  p.  214. 

Starvation  diet,  pp.  30,  31. 

St.  John,  Prof.  E.  P.,  pp.  59-60, 
92. 

Stuart,  Dr.  E.  M.,  p.  14. 

Superstitions  regarding  infants, 
pp.  15-18. 

Sun  Yat  Sen,  pp.  228,  229. 

Syrian  girls  at  work,  p.  236. 

Teachers,  where  to  be  trained, 
pp.  141,  143. 

Teething,  p.  16. 

Temple  girls,  pp.  192,  193;  leg- 
islation concerning,  pp.  193, 
194. 

Training  children  for  service, 
pp.  240,  241 ;  Christian  wives 
and  mothers,  pp.  66-68. 

Twins,  superstitions  regarding, 
p.  18. 

Underwood,  Mrs.  H.  G.,  p.  27. 

West  Africa,  boys  of,  pp.  166, 

167. 
"World's   Tragedies,   The,"  p. 

237. 
Yeung,  Mrs.,  of  China,  pp.  245, 

246. 


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